Isaias weakens after Category 2 landfall near Destin

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, on 10 October as a Category 2 storm, then weakened rapidly while moving north across the US Southeast, where flooding, damaging winds and widespread power outages were reported in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama.¹³⁴

Landfall and weakening

Isaias came ashore along the northern Gulf coast with sustained winds of 105mph, according to the Guardian. CBS News reported that the hurricane had briefly reached Category 3 intensity before landfall and later became a post-tropical cyclone. By 2am Eastern Time on Saturday, it had maximum sustained winds of 65mph and was moving north at 20mph southwest of Montgomery, Alabama.¹³

The National Weather Service forecast the system to cross Alabama and enter the Tennessee Valley. Forecasts warned of heavy rainfall, flash flooding, strong winds and storm surge across the Gulf coast and Southeast. Forecasters projected four to eight inches of rain across southern Alabama, south-west Georgia, the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend, although some locations could receive as much as 15 inches.¹³

Outages and local disruption

Accounts of the scale of electricity losses differed as the storm moved inland. The Guardian reported nearly 500,000 customers without power in Alabama and Florida, while CBS News put the number at more than 697,000 across Florida, Alabama and Georgia. The Associated Press said the hurricane's passage through the Florida Panhandle and Alabama left several hundred thousand utility customers without electricity.¹³⁴

In Pensacola, a gust of up to 102mph was recorded at city hall, according to the Guardian. Flooding and debris were reported in Destin and Pensacola, CBS News said, while all roads in southern Alabama’s Houston County were closed because of downed trees and power lines. A storm surge of up to seven feet had been warned along the Alabama-Florida line, and water at Panama City Beach reached 5.4 feet above average, the Guardian reported.¹³

Emergency response

Florida, Alabama and Georgia issued states of emergency, while Florida and Alabama ordered mandatory evacuations, according to the BBC. The governors of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida had also declared emergencies ahead of the storm, the Guardian reported. Tens of thousands of people evacuated before landfall, CBS News said.¹²³

Florida National Guard personnel were deployed for response work and damage assessment, with roughly 5,000 soldiers and airmen mobilised, according to the Guardian. FEMA said its incident management teams were deploying to Alabama and Florida and that personnel were working in state emergency operations centres. The White House was tracking the storm, according to CBS News.¹³

A late first hurricane

Isaias was the Atlantic season’s first hurricane after earlier named storms had not strengthened beyond tropical-storm intensity, according to BBC, CBS News and the Guardian. According to the Guardian, its formation matched 8 October 1905, making it tied for the second-latest hurricane to form in the Atlantic record.¹²³