Hurricane Isaias Makes Landfall in Florida as a Category 2 Storm
The storm came ashore near Destin with 105-mph winds. Hundreds of thousands lost power across the Florida Panhandle and Alabama.
Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, on Friday night. The storm came ashore around 9:30 p.m. ET as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 105 mph.
The National Hurricane Center put the eye about 40 miles east of Pensacola at landfall. The storm was moving north at 19 mph.
The wind was fierce well before the eye arrived. A 102-mph gust was recorded in Pensacola. The National Weather Service issued an extreme wind warning for parts of the Panhandle and called it “an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation.”
Hundreds of thousands of people lost power. Escambia County, home to Pensacola, had more than 110,000 outages before the eyewall even reached shore — about 70 percent of its customers. In Okaloosa County, a third of accounts were dark by 7:30 p.m.
Water is the other threat. Storm surge pushed the Gulf more than five feet above ground level near Panama City. A flash flood emergency covered Fort Walton Beach and Destin on Friday night.
The storm weakened slightly during the day. Isaias was briefly a Category 3 before dropping back to a Category 2.
Waffle Houses in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties closed before landfall. FEMA informally watches the chain’s closures as a measure of storm severity.
Gov. Ron DeSantis had expanded Florida’s state of emergency to 27 North Florida counties the day before the storm came ashore.
What comes next
Rain from Isaias is expected to spread across more than 15 eastern states this weekend. Officials urged residents to stay sheltered until conditions improve.
