Updated October 11, 2026 at 10:15 AM AKDT
Emergency crews in Florida and Alabama are surveying damage and power outages wrought by Hurricane Isaias, after the storm bashed into the Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm Friday night. At least four people have died from storm-related incidents, NPR has confirmed.
Isaias brought 105 mph winds onshore, snapping trees and knocking out electricity. Officials warn that flash flood threats persist, but further inland.
One death occurred in Escambia County, in the far west of the Florida Panhandle. Shortly before 9 p.m. local time Friday, a rescue team found a person pinned under a large tree, according to Sgt. Melony Peterson of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.
"The victim was inside the home when the tree collapsed," Peterson said via email.
A person also died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator in a room, according to Escambia County Sheriff Chip W. Simmons. Four others were hospitalized in the same incident. Many people use generators when they lose connection to the electricity grid.
Another death was reported in Jefferson County, Ala., which includes Birmingham.
"We did have a storm-related fatality overnight," Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Coker told NPR. "A tree did fall on the house," Coker added. "It was a single-family residence."
A fourth death was confirmed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's office, which told NPR that a person died in Barbour County, southeast of Montgomery. They did not provide details about the circumstances.
More than 390,000 people across the state and Florida were without power as of Sunday morning. At least 95% of outages across the state are expected to be restored by midnight, Alabama Power said on Sunday.
In Florida, the worst outages were in counties such as Santa Rosa; Holmes; Washington; and Walton – all of which had more than 80% of their residents without power, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a morning news conference.
The governor said some 16,000 utility workers were busy trying to get power returned to homeowners.
"Last night in the wee hours of the morning, those crews began working as early as 3 a.m.," DeSantis said. He added that teams were also working to remove trees blocking main roads -- and that both I-10 and Route 98 were open as of Saturday morning, along with all state bridges.
Florida Power & Light Company said it hopes to have power restored to 95% of those impacted by Isaias by end of day Monday.
Isaias made landfall near Destin, Fla., as a Category 2 hurricane around 8:30 p.m. local time Friday night, packing 105 mph winds, according to theNational Hurricane Center. It brought a storm surge of some 5 feet -- short of the 6 to 9 feet forecasters had said was possible if landfall coincided with peak high tide. It arrived roughly two hours before high tide in Destin.
Isaias was downgraded to a post-tropical storm hours after making landfall. By 5 a.m. local time on Saturday, its sustained winds had dropped to 35 mph, as the system sped its way through Alabama.
"Multiple trees and power lines are down across the county,"tweeted the emergency management agency in Jefferson County, Ala. It told residents to "avoid unnecessary travel if possible while crews clear roads and restore service."
But the storm's effects extended for hundreds of miles. By around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, the system sent a long band of powerful thunder storms up the center of Georgia. And as the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network notes, forecasters warn that tornadoes could spin off of the system, causing further havoc far from the Gulf Coast.
On Sunday, there were tornado warnings in North Carolina, as well as high risk of flooding. Other parts of the rest of the East Coast, including Virginia, also saw heavy rain.
NPR's Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.
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