Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, on Friday evening, sweeping ashore from the northern Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami reported the cyclone made landfall at 9:30 pm ET as a category 2 hurricane, with winds reaching 105 mph (165km/h).
Severe impacts are expected across the northern Gulf coast from Louisiana to Florida, and far inland. These include a “life-threatening” storm surge of up to 7ft (2.1 meters) along the Alabama-Florida line, and powerful wind gusts reaching parts of northern Georgia. Robbie Berg, an NHC hurricane expert, stated that sustained hurricane-force winds are likely to occur up to 100 miles inland along Isaias’s track.
Ahead of the storm, the governors of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida declared states of emergency. By Friday evening, nearly 500,000 customers had lost power across Alabama and Florida, according to PowerOutage.com. Florida’s national guard deployed approximately 5,000 soldiers and airmen to assist with the response.