At least four people have died after Hurricane Isaias made landfall on the Florida panhandle late on Friday, US time. Two of the deaths were in Florida and two in Alabama, BBC News reported.
Hundreds of thousands of people lost power. The storm has since weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, according to the Guardian, but forecasters still warn of flooding across the region.
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Landfall
Isaias came ashore with maximum sustained winds of 105mph, BBC News reported. It was a category 2 hurricane at landfall, according to the Guardian.
In Pensacola, winds blew the roof off a hotel. The city’s airport “took some damage”, its mayor said, the Guardian reported.
The Deaths
Two people died in Escambia County, Florida. One was a woman who was killed when a tree fell on her house, BBC News reported, citing Sheriff Chip Simmons.
The second death in the county was linked to a generator running in a closed garage, the Guardian reported, citing the sheriff’s office. Four family members were taken to hospital.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced two deaths in her state in a post on X. “Unfortunately, we have also learned that two Alabamians have lost their lives,” she wrote, BBC News reported.
One of the Alabama deaths was in Birmingham, where a tree fell on a home, according to the Guardian.
Power and Emergency Orders
At least 500,000 people were without power across several states on Saturday evening, BBC News reported, citing PowerOutage.
The Guardian put the figure at nearly 550,000 customers. That was down from more than 900,000 earlier in the day, the Guardian reported.
Alabama, Florida and Georgia have declared states of emergency. Florida and Alabama ordered evacuations, according to BBC News.
FEMA is providing resources to Georgia, the Guardian reported.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned residents about generators at a press conference. “Don’t run any generators inside your home, it can be very, very hazardous,” he said, according to the Guardian.
The Flood Warnings
The National Hurricane Center expects 4 to 8 inches of rain through Sunday across southern Alabama, the Florida panhandle and south-west Georgia. Some places could see up to 15 inches, the Guardian reported.
“Flash, urban and river flooding is possible across the region,” the centre said in its advisory, as quoted by the Guardian.
Florida’s transport secretary, Jared W Perdue, gave drivers a direct message at a news conference, according to the Guardian: “please, if there’s standing water or flowing water on top of a road, please do not drive through it.”
In South Carolina, the City of Charleston asked people to stay home on Saturday night, with a high tide of 7.5ft expected, BBC News reported.
“After dark, floodwater is much harder to see and it’s impossible to judge how deep it is from behind the wheel,” the city said.
What Comes Next for the South-East
Isaias is the first Atlantic hurricane of the season. El Niño has largely delayed the season, according to BBC News.
At the start of the season, NOAA forecast three to six hurricanes. In August it cut that forecast to two to six, the Guardian reported.
In Australia, climate came before the courts this week, when the High Court upheld a block on the Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion in a climate ruling.
Two other storms are active. Hurricane Simon, a category four storm, is bearing down on Mexico’s Pacific coast, and Tropical Storm Rachel is expected to hit southern California, BBC News reported.
For southern Alabama, the Florida panhandle and south-west Georgia, the National Hurricane Center’s rain forecast runs through Sunday.
Sources: BBC News, “Four dead and thousands without power after Hurricane Isaias lashes US”, 10 October 2026 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmje5x80yg70o); The Guardian, “Four dead as Isaias weakens to post-tropical cyclone after striking Florida panhandle”, 10 October 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/10/isaias-weakens-to-post-tropical-cyclone)
Photo: NOAA / NOAA-21 VIIRS, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Hurricane Isaias over the Gulf of Mexico on 9 October 2026 as it neared the Florida panhandle, captured by the VIIRS instrument on NOAA’s NOAA-21 satellite.
