Hurricane Isaias Weakens After Category 2 Landfall Near Destin, Leaves Four Dead and Nearly 900,000 Without Power

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, at about 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday as a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. Gusts reached 116 mph near Santa Rosa Sound. The National Hurricane Center later downgraded it to a post-tropical cyclone as it moved north into Alabama.

At least four people died in connection with the storm. In Escambia County, Florida, a woman died when a tree fell on a home. A second person in the same county was found dead in a closed garage with a running generator. In Birmingham, Alabama, another person died when a tree struck a residence. Alabama officials reported one additional fatality linked to the system.

Power outages peaked near 900,000 customers across Florida, Alabama and Georgia early Saturday. Florida accounted for roughly 430,000 to 450,000 of those. Escambia County alone saw about 130,000 outages. Alabama recorded more than 280,000 at one point, and Georgia more than 100,000. Restoration crews, including more than 16,000 linemen staged in advance, began work before dawn.

Governor Ron DeSantis said the state received no immediate search-and-rescue requests after landfall, a sign that structural damage remained limited relative to the storm’s intensity. All state-owned bridges reopened and Interstate 10 was cleared of debris. Flooding still affected roads in Destin and surrounding areas. A Panama City Beach gauge recorded water levels 5.59 feet above mean higher high water.

The storm produced heavy rain, with isolated totals exceeding 10 inches and one station in northern Walton County measuring 12 inches in 24 hours. Flash flooding and isolated tornado risks persisted as the remnant system moved inland toward Tennessee. It was expected to dissipate by Sunday.

Isaias was the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season. Wind shear in its final hours over water reduced its strength from a brief Category 3 peak. The National Hurricane Center had warned of life-threatening storm surge of 6 to 9 feet in the hardest-hit coastal zones. Those levels materialized in places but did not produce the catastrophic flooding seen in some prior Gulf storms.

Local officials in the Panhandle reported downed trees, blocked roads and scattered structural damage. Residents in Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach documented fallen trees across power lines and flooded streets. Utility companies projected multi-day restoration in the most affected counties.

The storm’s track shifted left of earlier forecasts, bringing the core closer to Destin and Pensacola than some models had indicated 48 hours earlier. That shift concentrated the highest winds and surge on the western Panhandle and southwestern Alabama.

As of Saturday afternoon, outages had begun to decline in some areas as crews restored service, but hundreds of thousands of households still lacked electricity. Flood watches remained in effect across parts of the Southeast through the weekend.

The event marked the first major tropical impact on the U.S. Gulf Coast in the 2026 season. Recovery operations continued under emergency declarations in Florida, Alabama and Georgia.