ع
Hurricane Isaias came ashore near Destin on the evening of October 9 as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 105 mph after weakening from a stronger Category 3 system earlier in the day the National Hurricane Center reported. An extreme wind warning covered coastal counties including Escambia Santa Rosa Okaloosa and Walton where gusts reached 116 mph as the northern eyewall moved onshore. The storm’s arrival followed a state of emergency declaration for 27 counties by Governor Ron DeSantis who expanded the order to cover additional areas in the Panhandle and Big Bend region ahead of the expected impacts.
Power outages surged across the Florida Panhandle with more than 230,000 customers losing electricity at the peak of the storm according to PowerOutage.us trackers cited by CNN. Escambia County alone saw over 110,000 outages representing about 58 percent of its customers while neighboring Santa Rosa and Walton counties also reported heavy losses the Florida Municipal Electric Association noted. In Tallahassee city crews restored power to thousands of the roughly 20,000 affected customers even as flooding rains continued reducing outages to around 14,400 by late evening the local utility said in updates.
A life-threatening storm surge of six to nine feet threatened portions of the western Panhandle alongside four to eight inches of rainfall with localized totals up to 15 inches possible the National Hurricane Center assessment found. Flash flooding and embedded tornadoes posed additional dangers as feeder bands set up over the Big Bend area according to WeatherTiger meteorologists. The National Weather Service issued warnings emphasizing that residents under the extreme wind alert should seek immediate shelter as conditions deteriorated rapidly.
Governor Ron DeSantis visited the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center in Pensacola to oversee preparations and response efforts his office stated. More than 16,000 linemen and restoration personnel from multiple states stood ready to tackle outages while nearly 400 Florida State Guard soldiers deployed for damage assessments route clearance and search and rescue the governor’s update detailed. The Department of Environmental Protection issued an emergency order to expedite repairs and protect public safety in the declared counties a state filing showed.
Florida Power and Light coordinated with local officials to position crews and resources ahead of the storm the utility’s president Scott Bores said in a prepared statement. Tolls were suspended on key bridges in Santa Rosa Okaloosa and Destin counties to aid evacuations and movement the governor’s executive order indicated. Health officials opened a reporting system for the affected counties monitoring six evacuations at hospitals and assisted living facilities as a precaution according to the Agency for Health Care Administration.
As the storm moved inland at 19 mph with winds dropping to 85 mph by late evening impacts extended to downed trees and power lines complicating restoration in flooded areas the City of Tallahassee reported on social media. Officials urged residents to report outages through dedicated apps and websites while continuing to monitor the system for additional failures. The hurricane’s path brought similar threats into Alabama and parts of Georgia where states of emergency had also been declared in advance of the system.
