Hurricane Isaias has killed four people and left at least 600,000 people without power across the southern United States. The storm battered parts of the region with powerful winds and heavy rain, and officials reported two deaths each in Alabama and Florida. Several of the fatalities involved people killed when trees fell onto their homes.
According to the outage tracker poweroutage.us, at least 600,000 people were without electricity in several states as of Saturday afternoon. Isaias made landfall in Florida late on Friday with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (168 km/h), before being downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.
Storm deaths and injuries in Florida and Alabama
In Florida’s Escambia County, local Sheriff Chip Simmons said a woman died after a tree fell on her house. Joey Williams said his wife had died in the storm. He said the couple had stepped outside to photograph the sky and the damage, and when they returned inside, a tree crashed through their roof and trapped them. “I was able to squeeze out. My wife didn’t make it,” he said.
Simmons later reported that a man had died of carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator in a garage that was not properly ventilated. Four other people from the same house were taken to hospital. In Alabama, a sheriff was injured when a tree fell on him while he was responding to a car crash.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a post on X that two Alabamians had lost their lives, but she gave no further details about the circumstances of the deaths.
Flooding, rescues and evacuation orders
Alabama, Florida and Georgia all declared states of emergency before the storm arrived. Florida and Alabama also issued mandatory evacuation orders affecting thousands of people. Officials had to rescue people from vehicles submerged by floodwaters.
The Florida National Guard shared pictures on X of a truck stuck in a flood ditch, saying soldiers “stopped, swam to the vehicle and pulled its occupants to safety.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said flooding remained a continuing risk and described a “very hazardous situation.” Ivey said officials were concerned about spinoff tornadoes in her state and urged residents to rely on reliable information as conditions developed.
Forecasts for the Carolinas and other storms
In Charleston, South Carolina, officials asked people to stay home on Saturday night, when high tide was expected to reach 7.5ft (2.3m). The city warned on Facebook that floodwater is much harder to see after dark and that it is impossible to judge how deep it is from behind the wheel.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the storm was expected to keep weakening as it moved north-east. It warned, however, that the Carolinas and Georgia could see flooding from up to 10 inches (25cm) of rain.
Separately, Tropical Storm Rachel was expected to hit southern California later on Saturday, and Hurricane Simon was forecast to strike the Pacific coast of Mexico on Sunday. Isaias was the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, which has been delayed largely because of El Niño conditions in the Pacific.
