Hurricane Isaias leaves more than 860,000 without power across the US south-east

Hurricane Isaias, the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2026 season, made landfall on the US Gulf Coast late on Friday, hitting the Florida Panhandle and Alabama hardest. According to poweroutage.us, which tracks electricity outages, more than 860,000 people are now without power as the storm moves inland across the south-east.

How the storm developed

Isaias intensified into a hurricane on Wednesday night. It came ashore near Destin, Florida, as a category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. By early morning, the National Weather Service said, it had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 65 mph.

Before landfall, storm surge warnings were in effect from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Suwannee River in Florida. Residents were urged to follow local officials' advice and evacuate if told to.

Power outages

Poweroutage.us lists Florida (436,745), Alabama (316,366) and Georgia (87,334) as the worst-affected states. Smaller outages were reported elsewhere, including Washington (6,550), California (4,467), Texas (4,404), Ohio (3,827) and Idaho (1,549).

Jonathan Ramos, a 40-year-old government employee, described the conditions from a hotel in Pensacola, Florida, where the power went out. He said the wind was faster than anything he had seen, calling it intense and scary, and added that he would not recommend people travel there for fun.

Forecast

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm is expected to cross Alabama and move into the Tennessee Valley. Maximum sustained winds have dropped to near 35 mph (55 km/h), and Isaias is forecast to dissipate on Sunday. Heavy rain across the south-east raises the risk of flash flooding, with southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and south-western Georgia expected to be among the hardest-hit areas. Landslides are also possible in the Southern Appalachians.