PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Isaias peeled off hotel and condominium rooftops and facades along the Florida Panhandle before charging north Saturday, dishing out torrential rains and the threat of flash floods and tornadoes across the Southeast.
At least four deaths were linked to the storm, including two people killed when trees fell onto homes in Florida and Alabama. Nearly 700,000 customers were without power by midday, and forecasters warned that flooding could stretch into the southern Appalachians.
Isaias came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane on Friday near Destin, Florida, a popular Gulf Coast vacation spot filled with high-rises and quirky tourist shops. The storm weakened overnight and was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone but remained dangerous.
“The risk of flooding is still high,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday. “Sometimes these things happen a day or two days after the storm goes through. So the flooding story is not over.”
Despite warnings of life-threatening storm surges ahead of the storm, several major routes along the coast were open by daybreak Saturday and free of downed trees and power lines typically seen after major hurricanes.
Hurricane-force winds in the Florida Panhandle blew the roof off a hotel in Pensacola and the city’s mayor said the airport “took some damage.” The storm flattened a boathouse in Destin and ripped off part of the facade of a high-rise in Panama City Beach.
A worker in a condominium parking lot swept up piles of insulation and pieces of metal from the building. Nearby, people were putting back beach chairs that had been tossed about.
In Florida, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said there were two storm-related deaths.
A woman was killed when a tree fell on her home and a man died of carbon monoxide fumes from a generator running in his garage. Four of the man’s family members, ranging in age from 4 to 72, were treated but expected to survive, the sheriff said.
Nearby in Gulf Breeze, Jayme Mitich wiped tears away Saturday as she surveyed the damage to her apartment. Her living room was soaked and covered in insulation and broken beams lay across her laundry room.
She and her 13-year-old daughter, Jeweliana Jackson, hid beneath a mattress minutes before the storm tore off part of their roof. “The noise got so loud, and I just kept hearing things break and crash into everything,” Mitich said.
The rest of their apartment complex was littered with roof shingles and broken beams from a wooden fence. Nearby, the winds uprooted trees and flipped a truck on its side.
“It’s going to be OK,” Mitich said. “No matter what, we’re going to make it.”
Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, charged farther into Alabama with tropical-force winds overnight.
One person died when a tree fell on a house in Birmingham, said Cory Moon, the city’s fire chief. One other person was rescued from the house and treated at the scene, he said.
A second storm-related death in Alabama was attributed to a motor vehicle crash involving a downed tree in Barbour County, said Josh Johnson of the state’s emergency management agency.
Along Alabama’s Gulf Coast, authorities in Mobile reported downed trees and power lines and numerous closed roads.
Maranie Adams, who rode out the storm with her husband, two adult sons and their chickens in Gulf Shores, Alabama, said the winds rocked their home, but it was nothing like Hurricane Sally, which left 2 feet (0.6 meters) of water under their elevated house.
“We have a few limbs down, some leaves everywhere, but we’re very spared. So, everything’s open on the island today. Everything’s good,” Adams said. “I feel very much more relieved today.”
The U.S. Energy Department announced it had authorized emergency exchanges of as much as 4 million gallons (15.14 million liters) of crude oil from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve to address disruptions in supply because of the storm.
The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually quiet this year, and Isaias was the first hurricane to hit the eastern U.S. since 2024.
The National Hurricane Center said flood watches remain for parts of the southeastern U.S. and southern Appalachians.
Parts of Georgia and the Carolinas could see up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain though totals are likely to be 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 centimeters). The storm was expected to move into the Tennessee Valley and then the mid-Atlantic on Sunday.
Officials at the Charlotte Motor Speedway announced that Saturday’s Blue Cross NC 300 was postponed until Sunday night due to a forecast of inclement weather.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Simon strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane as it approached Mexico’s coast. Simon is expected to bring heavy rainfall to parts of southwestern Mexico with life-threatening flooding and mudslides.
Tropical Storm Rachel was also expected to bring heavy winds and rain to northern Mexico and Southern California over the weekend.
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Casey reported from Boston. Associated Press reporters Sophie Bates in Gulf Breeze, Thomas Strong in Washington, Julie Walker in New York, Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
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