Four people are dead and hundreds of thousands of customers were without power Saturday afternoon after Isaias crashed into the U.S. Gulf Coast overnight, bringing heavy rain and strong winds even as it moved inland.
Two of the deaths were in Alabama, according to Gov. Kay Ivey, who didn't provide details. Earlier, authorities said one of the deaths was due to a tree falling on a house. In Florida, another person died from a tree fall on a house, and the other was found dead in a garage with a generator running, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
"Don't run the generator inside, it's something that can be fatal," he said.
Isaias made landfall Friday night near Destin, Fla., as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds that downed trees and knocked out power lines. It has weakened as it grinds north through Alabama, with winds at about 35 mph. The storm was categorized as a posttropical cyclone Saturday and is expected to subside Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
Nearly 630,000 customers remained without electricity Saturday afternoon in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, according to outage tracker PowerOutage.com. Florida accounted for more than half of the outages. DeSantis said Saturday that crews were sent out overnight to begin repair work.
"You have to get the debris out of the way before the linemen can connect it," DeSantis said Saturday afternoon. "There's just a lot of trees that have interfered."
Even as Isaias weakens, the storm is expected to drop as much as 8 inches of rain over the weekend in southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and southwest Georgia, forecasters said.
Rivers in the western Florida Panhandle could flood as they reach their highest levels Saturday and begin to recede Sunday, the national service said.
Isaias was the first Atlantic hurricane of 2026 in what has been a relatively quiet season in the region. Forecasters are tracking two other storms elsewhere: Hurricane Simon off Mexico's west coast, and Tropical Storm Rachel, which is headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border.
Two airports in the region, Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport and the Pensacola International Airport, remained closed to clear and assess damage. Roads in parts of southern Alabama were closed and officials told people to stay home as crews worked to remove downed trees.