The hurricane Isaías made landfall on Friday night near Destin, in the northwest of Florida, as a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, leaving in its wake a trail of destruction that as of Saturday continues to leave nearly 450,000 homes and businesses without electricity and has claimed at least two lives.
According to the Office of the Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, the system made landfall around 9:30 p.m. on Friday and moved northward through the western Panhandle before weakening to a post-tropical cyclone in the early hours of Saturday.
Winds reached 116 mph near Santa Rosa Sound and 100 mph in the vicinity of Pensacola, while the water level in Panama City Beach rose approximately 5.6 feet above normal high tide.
In Pensacola, the damage was particularly striking, DeSantis reported at a press conference: the roof of a motel was completely torn off, a newly built house in the Aragon district was entirely crushed, and thick layers of sand covered the roads of Pensacola Beach after the storm surge, with partially collapsed structures and partially sunk boats.
Power outages affect the counties of the northwest unevenly: Santa Rosa records the highest percentage with 90% of its customers without supply, followed by Holmes (89%), Washington (86%), Walton (85%), Escambia (75%), and Okaloosa (53%). Throughout the southeastern region —Florida, Alabama, and Georgia— over 860,000 customers remain without electricity.
DeSantis reported that more than 16,000 workers from the electrical sector were pre-positioned before the impact and are already working tirelessly to restore the service.
The governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 27 counties and warned that the risks are not over. "Although the center of the storm has left the state, the threat of flooding persists," he noted in a press conference this Saturday, adding that the Panhandle and the Big Bend region could receive between four and eight inches of rain over the weekend.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded Isaías to a post-tropical cyclone at 5:00 a.m. this Saturday, with sustained winds of only 55 km/h. However, it maintained alerts for rainfall of between 25 and 51 millimeters in northern Florida and warned that river flooding in the western Panhandle will reach its peak between this Saturday and Sunday.
The lieutenant governor Jay Collins specified to CNN that rescue operations began uninterrupted at 3 a.m. on Saturday: "We feel very fortunate to have personnel from the Florida Department of Transportation, from various counties, and our State Guard who are risking their lives to rescue people."
The Florida National Guard activated approximately 5,000 soldiers and airmen along with more than 1,300 tactical vehicles, eight helicopters, and rescue boats, while the State Guard deployed nearly 400 additional personnel for damage assessments and route clearance.
Regarding the victims, one person died in Escambia County due to a fallen tree, although DeSantis clarified that this death had not yet been officially confirmed at the state level.
In Birmingham, Alabama, another person lost their life when a tree fell on a home, confirmed Captain Orlando Reynolds of the city's Fire and Rescue Service.
Isaías is the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season to impact U.S. territory, and the first to make landfall in the country since Hurricane Milton did so as a Category 3 storm south of Tampa exactly two years ago.
All major state roads, including Interstate 10 and US 98, have been reopened, although the authorities in Santa Rosa County warned that most of their local roads remain "impassable" due to fallen trees and downed power lines, urging residents not to travel unless absolutely necessary.
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