By Joseph Pisani

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Fla., Friday night, bringing heavy rains, damaging winds and the possibility of life-threatening flooding to the region.

"Buckle down at this point," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. "Don't be getting out on the roads."

The Category 2 hurricane hit the U.S. Gulf Coast around 9:30 p.m. Eastern time with 105 mph winds, pulling out trees and knocking down power lines.

More than 500,000 customers in Alabama and Florida were without power Friday night, according to PowerOutage.com, which tracks outages. Utility companies said they would send out crews to make repairs when it was safe to do so.

"Residents in these areas should have a safe room to ride out the storm and prepare for long-duration power outages," the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters warned storm surges could reach as high as 5 feet in parts of Alabama and Florida, moving rising water inland from the coastline. Even normally dry areas near the coast could see dangerous surges.

As much as 8 inches of rainfall is expected this weekend in southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and southwest Georgia, increasing the risk of flash flooding, the weather service said.

The hurricane is expected to weaken as it moves inland Saturday, "but Isaias is expected to continue producing gusty winds well inland," the National Weather Service said.

Isaias is the first Atlantic hurricane of 2026 in what has been a relatively quiet season.

Write to Joseph Pisani at joseph.pisani@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 09, 2026 23:57 ET (03:57 GMT)