DESTIN, Fla. — Search and rescue personnel across the southeastern United States assessed damage on Saturday after Hurricane Isaias slammed into the Gulf Coast, killing at least four people, downing power lines and leaving hundreds of thousands of residents in the dark.
The storm made landfall near Destin, Florida, late Friday evening as a Category 2 hurricane packing sustained winds of 105 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center and the FOX Forecast Center. Isaias marked the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season and the first to strike the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Milton in October 2024. Although forecasters downgraded the system to a post-tropical cyclone by Saturday morning as it pushed inland through Alabama toward Tennessee, officials cautioned that serious risks lingered across several states.
Fatalities in Florida and Alabama
State and local authorities confirmed two storm-related fatalities in Alabama and two in Florida, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported. Among the victims was a person pinned inside an Escambia County, Florida, residence after a large tree collapsed onto the structure shortly before 9 p.m. local time Friday, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
In Birmingham, Alabama, another person died when a tree fell onto a single-family house, Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Coker told NPR. Alabama authorities confirmed a second fatality in the state, though further specifics were not immediately released.
A fourth fatality occurred in Escambia County, Florida, where deputies discovered a man dead inside a garage from a generator incident, FOX Weather reported. Four other individuals in the residence received treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning after the generator was operated indoors without adequate ventilation, according to local law enforcement.
Extensive damage and persistent flooding threats
Isaias carved a path of destruction through the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama before spinning off storms across Georgia and the Carolinas. In Pensacola, Florida, high winds damaged an airport facility and ripped the roof off a hotel, while downed utility poles and debris forced extensive street closures, Al Jazeera reported.
More than one million electric customers lost power across Florida, Alabama and Georgia at the height of the storm, according to monitoring data from PowerOutage.us cited by FOX Weather. While utility crews restored service to many areas, more than 450,000 customers remained without electricity late Saturday evening.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said roughly 16,000 utility workers mobilized to restore electricity across heavily affected Panhandle communities, noting that major thoroughfares including Interstate 10 and Route 98 remained open. However, DeSantis emphasized that the danger had not entirely passed.
“The flooding story is not over,” DeSantis warned on Saturday, cautioning that saturated soil and continuous rain could trigger sudden flash flooding in the days following landfall.
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey expressed concern over torrential downpours and the lingering threat of spinoff tornadoes, as high waters caused road closures in southern portions of the state, including Houston County.
Federal energy response and what comes next
In response to supply disruptions sparked by the storm, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Saturday that it would release up to four million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve through an emergency exchange.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the department acted swiftly to support refinery operations, minimize disruptions to domestic fuel supplies, and keep energy affordable and secure for consumers.
Recovery efforts are expected to continue over the coming days as power companies work to reconnect remaining outages and local emergency agencies monitor swollen rivers across Alabama and Georgia. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier warned residents in damaged areas to stay alert for fraudulent contractors seeking to exploit homeowners as rebuilding efforts get underway.
