By Emily Mae Czachor
Hurricane Isaias, the first of the 2026 Atlantic season, made landfall Friday night along the northern Gulf Coast, bringing drenching rains, powerful winds and the risk of life-threatening flash flooding and storm surges to a large swath of the Southeast.
The center of Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, at around 8 p.m. Eastern Time, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. It made landfall as a Category 2 storm, but quickly weakened into a Category 1.
President Trump late Friday night told reporters that White House officials were tracking the hurricane “very closely.”
Isaias had earlier in the day briefly strengthened into a Category 3 storm, which is defined as a major hurricane. Tens of thousands of people have evacuated the region, officials said. More than 697,000 customers were without power across Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
Maps show hurricane’s path
Isaias had maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour as of Friday night, according to forecasters, and life-threatening storm surge was likely along the Florida Panhandle and Alabama coasts.
The core of Isaias, pronounced “ees-ah-EE-ahs,” was about 45 miles northeast of Pensacola, Florida, heading north at 20 mph late Friday night, the NHC said. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 35 miles from the storm’s center, and tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 160 miles.
The map shows the potential path of Hurricane Isaias as it heads toward the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The hurricane center warned “dangerous and damaging hurricane force-winds” were expected across the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and southern Mississippi, where residents who had not evacuated were advised to have a safe room to ride out the storm and prepare for the possibility of long-term power outages.
The center of the storm was forecast to move across Alabama and into the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday.
It was expected to weaken to a post-tropical storm Saturday as it moves inland, but will still produce gusty winds. The central U.S. Gulf Coast and much of the Southeast is likely to see heavy rainfall through the weekend, with flash flooding possible.
Watches and warnings in effect
A hurricane warning is in effect from the Mississippi/Alabama border to the Bay/Gulf County Line in Florida. A tropical storm warning was in place from east of the Bay/Gulf County Line to the Aucilla River in Florida.
A storm surge warning was in place from Dauphin Island, Alabama, to the mouth of the Suwannee River in Florida.
Map shows watches and warnings as Hurricane Isaias approaches the Gulf Coast.
The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded, forecasters warned, with heights of up to 9 feet from the Alabama-Florida border to Grayton Beach, Florida. Other parts of the Florida Panhandle could see storm surge up to 6 feet.
Hurricane-force winds are expected to spread inland as far as 100 miles from the coast into southern Alabama, forecasters said.
A wind gust of 112 mph was measured at Santa Rosa Sound, Florida, according to the hurricane center. Other areas of the Southeast that were also expected to see “damaging wind gusts” included northern Georgia, the southern Appalachians and southern Middle Tennessee.
Map shows the storm forecast as Hurricane Isaias approaches the Gulf Coast.
The hurricane center forecasts 4 to 8 inches of rain and as much as 15 inches in some places along the coast, from southern Alabama to the Florida Panhandle, Florida’s Big Bend and southwest Georgia.
Two to 5 inches of rain are expected across much of the rest of the Southeast, with up to 10 inches possible, especially across the southern Appalachians and coastal Carolinas.
Map shows the 3-day rain forecast for the Gulf Coast and Southeast from Hurricane Isaias.
There is also a risk of tornadoes spinning off from the storm beginning Friday and continuing through Saturday, forecasters said. The tornado threat on Saturday will extend to areas of Georgia and the Carolinas.
Florida, Georgia and Alabama declare states of emergency
“Folks who are in the path of this storm should know, this is not a random tropical system,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news conference Friday. “It’s a major hurricane. And it’s going to potentially do a lot of damage.”
Evacuations were ordered in parts of Florida’s Okaloosa and Walton counties, which are both in the Panhandle. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has told tourists and visitors in the state’s coastal areas to leave immediately.
Ivey’s evacuation order “requires all non-residents, tourists and visitors in Baldwin County south of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, including Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, and on Dauphin Island in Mobile County, to evacuate immediately,” a news release said.
DeSantis declared a state of emergency for more than two dozen counties in Florida, and Ivey issued a state of emergency for 40 counties in Alabama. Government buildings closed in nine Alabama counties on Friday, Ivey announced. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also declared a state of emergency.
The Trump administration approved federal emergency declarations for Florida and Alabama.
In Orange Beach, Alabama, streets and beaches were empty during what was supposed to be a busy weekend for tourists. The gridlock on area roadways caused by fleeing residents over the past 48 hours was gone, and the evacuation window had closed, officials said, because winds were too strong.
The few residents left were trying to make the best of it. Christi Woods manages a wine store in Orange Beach, one of the only businesses that was still open Friday.
“We do take precautions, I mean, we’re kind of in the flood zone,” Woods said.
Three shelters were open as of Friday morning at schools in Mobile County, Alabama. At least four churches in Dothan, Alabama, are being offered as shelters Friday, and they’re also providing snacks and drinks.
Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier told CBS News his biggest concern for the coastal Alabama community is whether its residents and visitors would heed official warnings.
“Because what inevitably happens is people hear the warnings, but they don’t actually take any action until it’s much too late,” Collier said. “And oftentimes if it’s really bad, first responders can’t get out to people until things calm down a bit.”
DeSantis warned Friday of significant storm surge and likely wind damage that could put “a lot of people’s lives in jeopardy if they haven’t heeded evacuation orders.” He said storm surge “does the most significant damage from these storms.”
“Everywhere from Pensacola all the way into the Big Bend section of north Florida, you could see storm surge. So please take caution of that,” he said, adding: “And we always say you hide from the wind, but you run from the water. When the water’s rising and things are happening, it’s a very, very difficult conundrum — and you do not want to be caught in that.”
The U.S. Coast Guard also said it was preparing for Friday’s landfall and urged seafarers near the Gulf to stay informed and remain vigilant leading up to the hurricane’s approach.
The latest for a first hurricane since 1905
Isaias’ progression into a hurricane on Wednesday, Oct. 7, marked the latest date in 121 years for the Atlantic season’s first hurricane to develop, just missing a record set on Oct. 8, 1905, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.
The season, which has been unusually quiet in the Atlantic this year, runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.
An Atlantic hurricane season typically produces, on average, 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes, according to the hurricane center, which used climate data collected between 1991 and 2020 to calculate those figures. A season’s first named storm normally forms in mid- to late June, while the first hurricane tends to form in early to mid-August, and the first major hurricane often comes in late August or early September.
Forecasters predicted there would be less Atlantic storm activity than usual this year, but so far it has been even quieter than anticipated. Meteorologists say that’s largely due to the onset of a strong El Niño over the summer, which typically correlates with cooler water temperatures and greater fluctuations in wind patterns over the Atlantic, conditions that dampen the growth of tropical systems. The Pacific, meanwhile, has seen an unusually active series of hurricanes.
Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-isaias-first-storm-2026-atlantic-season-record/