Four people were killed after Hurricane Isaias struck the United States, local authorities said, as the storm unleashed damaging winds, torrential rain and flooding across the Gulf Coast.
Local media reported that falling trees caused two of the deaths, crashing onto homes as the hurricane moved inland.
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About 670,000 customers across Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi remained without electricity as Isaias weakened into a post-tropical cyclone.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said post-tropical cyclone Isaias was moving over southern Alabama, while the threat of flash flooding and powerful winds extended farther inland.
Isaias battered the US Gulf Coast with heavy rain and strong winds after making landfall in northwestern Florida, the NHC said.
Debris on an intersection as wind and rain from Hurricane Isaias pass through Pensacola in Florida
“Isaias makes landfall near Destin, Florida,” the NHC said in an earlier update.
“Life threatening storm surge impacting Gulf Coast as dangerous hurricane conditions and flash flooding spread inland,” the agency warned before the system was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.
Isaias quickly shed wind speed after coming ashore near Destin as a Category One storm, then weakened further into a post-tropical cyclone. The NHC nevertheless warned that storm surge and flooding remained dangerous as power networks failed.
Florida emergency officials urged residents to remain indoors and prepare for hurricane conditions across the northern part of the state after Isaias first reached land as a Category Two storm.
Coastal communities imposed mandatory evacuations and closed businesses as Isaias became the first hurricane of an Atlantic season that began in June. Activity had been restrained by a historically strong El Niño, a climate pattern that typically contributes to more powerful storms in the Pacific.
In Pensacola, roughly 80km west of Destin, winds tore roofs from some homes and businesses, broke tree branches and knocked out electricity.
A fallen tree blocks a street in in Pensacola, Florida
“Things are flying really fast and I’ve never seen wind this fast before, so it’s intense, it’s scary,” Jonathan Ramos, a 40-year-old government employee, said from his hotel in Pensacola after the power went out.
“I don’t recommend people coming down here for fun to do this,” he added.
By midday, about 420,000 customers in Florida, 190,000 in Alabama, 43,000 in Georgia and 17,000 in Mississippi were without power, according to outage-tracking company PowerOutage.us.
Earlier, reporters at the scene saw convoys of repair trucks traveling through Pensacola and Navarre toward staging areas prepared for widespread outages.
Water service to buildings was also suspended.
Record-warm waters in the Gulf, heated by climate change, helped Isaias intensify rapidly. It was the first hurricane to hit the US mainland since Milton in 2024.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press briefing that “we’ve got a massive amount of supplies and personnel ready to respond once the storm hits”.
US President Donald Trump called off a planned visit to a college football game between the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, because of the hurricane.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued in several Florida counties, while the storm’s effects were expected to reach across a broad section of the southeastern United States.
The combination of storm surge and high tide was expected to inundate normally dry areas. The NHC said water levels could reach 2.7m near the Alabama-Florida border.
Forecasters also warned that intense rainfall could cause flash floods and send rivers over their banks.
Two airports in northwestern Florida suspended operations.
A man puts shutters on his home before the arrival of Hurricane Isaias in Pensacola, Florida
Isaias’s late appearance this season was largely attributed to an El Niño of historic strength.
El Niño, the warm phase of the El Niño -Southern Oscillation (ENSO), produces strong vertical wind shear over the Atlantic, a condition that generally breaks storms apart.
“We have been seeing basically nearly record strong shear throughout the Atlantic Basin this year and that is consistent with what we’d expect to see with a strong El Niño event,” Michael Fischer, of University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, said.
In the Pacific, however, El Niño has the reverse effect, reducing wind shear and giving storms a better chance to strengthen.
The Pacific has already generated several hurricanes this year, including some that reached the maximum Category Five strength.
“Sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico are in record territory because of fossil fuel-driven climate change,” Marc Alessi, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said.
“Isaias was able to tap into all of that energy in the ocean to develop into a major hurricane,” he added.
An analysis by nonprofit Climate Central found that Gulf of Mexico waters were about 1.4C warmer than the pre-industrial average. Isaias “formed over waters that were 600 times more likely to be that temperature because of climate change”, Kristina Dahl, the group’s vice president for science, said.
Climate change has also raised sea-levels in the region by around 16cm, meaning storm surge begins from a higher baseline and can reach farther inland, Ms Dahl said.
Warming is linked to heavier rainfall as warmer oceans and atmosphere enable hurricanes to hold more moisture.
Isaias also disrupted oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting the evacuation of platforms and rigs.
About 71% of the region’s oil production had been temporarily shut down, removing nearly 1.5 million barrels a day from the market, according to the Marine Minerals Administration.
Roughly 59% of gas production was suspended as well.
