Hurricane Isaias Hits Florida Panhandle as Category 2, Leaving Over 600,000 Without Power

Hurricane Isaias struck the Florida Panhandle on Friday night as a Category 2 storm, coming ashore near Destin with maximum sustained winds of about 105 mph. It is the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Milton battered Florida's Gulf Coast in October 2024.

The storm lost strength quickly once over land. Within about half an hour of landfall, the National Hurricane Center said winds had eased to roughly 85 mph, dropping Isaias to Category 1. Its centre was moving north at around 19 mph, and forecasters expected it to weaken into a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon as it tracks over Alabama and Georgia.

Power cuts spread across the Gulf Coast

The most immediate damage was to the power grid. By early Saturday, more than 610,000 homes and businesses had lost electricity across the region, with about 379,000 in Florida and around 218,000 in Alabama. Smaller outages were reported in Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, and the figures were still rising overnight.

Wind gusts above 100 mph were recorded around Pensacola before landfall, and Gulf Breeze, across Pensacola Bay, reported a gust of 97 mph. In Mobile, Alabama, officials reported fallen trees and power lines, and the city put a night-time curfew in place. A Florida utility serving the Pensacola area issued a boil-water notice.

Surge and flooding are the bigger threats

Forecasters have stressed that water, not wind, is likely to cause the most lasting harm. The hurricane centre warned of storm surge of 6 to 9 feet along vulnerable stretches of coast, including Pensacola Beach and the Gulf Islands National Seashore. A flash flood emergency was declared for southern Okaloosa County, which includes Destin, where life-threatening flooding was already underway.

Inland, 4 to 8 inches of rain, and locally more, is forecast through the weekend from southern Alabama into southwestern Georgia. Isaias is then expected to carry heavy rain into the wider Southeast, and later the Midwest and Northeast, into Monday. A few tornadoes are also possible near the Alabama-Georgia line.

Emergency response and disruption

Florida deployed about 5,000 National Guard personnel ahead of the storm, with search and rescue teams on standby. Several counties ordered mandatory evacuations, and most flights at Panhandle airports, including all services at Destin-Fort Walton Beach, were cancelled on Friday. President Donald Trump called off plans to attend Saturday's college football game between Georgia and Alabama in Tuscaloosa, saying he did not want to strain the emergency response.

In a sign of how seriously the region took the warnings, dozens of Waffle House restaurants in the Panhandle closed. The chain is known for staying open through bad weather, and its closures are often treated informally as a gauge of a storm's severity.

Why markets will be watching

The storm's track is expected to spare the biggest oil production and refining hubs along the Gulf Coast, which lie further west. Industry experts have cautioned, however, that prolonged power outages could still force some refineries to slow or halt processing. That matters at a time when US fuel prices are already under heavy pressure: diesel has been trading near record highs, and Washington this week turned to a supply arrangement with Russia to try to ease costs. Any refinery disruption from Isaias would add to that strain, with knock-on effects for global energy markets that India, as a major crude importer, follows closely.

The Atlantic is not the only active basin. In the Pacific, Hurricane Simon strengthened to Category 2 on Friday and is forecast to hit Mexico over the weekend, while Tropical Storm Rachel is expected to bring wind and rain to northern Mexico and Southern California.

This is an original summary based on public reporting. See our editorial policy for how we source, write, and correct our stories.