Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, late Friday as a Category 2 storm, killing at least four people and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of customers across Florida, Alabama and Georgia before weakening to a post-tropical system.
Officials said Saturday that two people, one in Florida and one in Alabama, died when trees fell on their homes. A third person in Alabama was killed in a traffic accident caused by downed trees, and a Florida man died in his garage where a generator was running.
The storm brought heavy rain, high winds and a significant storm surge to the coast. FOX Weather Senior Correspondent Robert Ray, reporting from Pensacola Beach, described a large surge hitting Destin as the storm came ashore.
Damage was reported across the region, including in Monroe County, Alabama, and across the Florida Panhandle, where downed trees and flooding left lasting disruption even as the storm moved inland and lost strength.
Power Outages and Flooding Risk
As of 2 p.m. Central time Saturday, more than 600,000 customers remained without electricity across Florida, Alabama and Georgia, according to the outage-tracking site PowerOutage.com. That figure was down from nearly 900,000 earlier in the day as crews worked to restore service.
Flash flooding remained a concern in parts of the Southeast, though some areas began reopening Saturday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said state crews had cleared and reopened all state bridges, along with Interstate 10 and U.S. 98, before daylight Saturday. He said utility crews were continuing restoration work and that state emergency assets remained on standby in case rescues were needed as flooding persisted in some areas.
This is a developing story.
