Hurricane Isaias Kills at Least 4 After Gulf Coast Landfall, Leaving 390,000 Without Power

Emergency crews in Florida and Alabama are surveying damage and power outages after Hurricane Isaias slammed into the Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm Friday night. At least four people have died in storm-related incidents, NPR has confirmed. Isaias came ashore with 105 mph winds, snapping trees and knocking out electricity, and officials warn that flash flood threats persist farther inland.

One death occurred in Escambia County, at the far western end of the Florida Panhandle. Shortly before 9 p.m. local time Friday, a rescue team found a person pinned under a large tree, said Sgt. Melony Peterson of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. "The victim was inside the home when the tree collapsed," she said. A second person in the county died of carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator in a room, Sheriff Chip W. Simmons said. Four others were hospitalized in the same incident.

Another death was reported in Jefferson County, Alabama, which includes Birmingham. "We did have a storm-related fatality overnight," Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Coker told NPR. "A tree did fall on the house," he said, adding that it was a single-family residence. A fourth death was confirmed by the office of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, which said a person died in Barbour County, southeast of Montgomery, and did not give details.

More than 390,000 people across the two states were without power as of Sunday morning. Alabama Power said at least 95% of outages in the state were expected to be restored by midnight. In Florida, the worst outages hit Santa Rosa, Holmes, Washington and Walton counties, where more than 80% of residents lost power, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a morning news conference. About 16,000 utility workers were on the job, he said, starting as early as 3 a.m., while teams cleared trees blocking main roads. Interstate 10, Route 98 and all state bridges were open. Florida Power & Light said it hoped to restore power to 95% of affected customers by the end of the day Monday.

Isaias made landfall near Destin around 8:30 p.m. local time Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its storm surge was about 5 feet, short of the 6 to 9 feet forecasters had said was possible if landfall coincided with peak high tide. The storm arrived roughly two hours before high tide in Destin.

The system was downgraded to a post-tropical storm hours after landfall, and by 5 a.m. Saturday its sustained winds had dropped to 35 mph as it raced through Alabama. Its effects still reached hundreds of miles. By about 9:30 a.m. Saturday, a long band of powerful thunderstorms had moved up the center of Georgia, and the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network noted that forecasters warned of tornadoes spinning off the system far from the coast. On Sunday there were tornado warnings in North Carolina.

The generator death underscores a danger that follows many hurricanes. Officials routinely urge residents to run generators outdoors and well away from windows and doors, because carbon monoxide can build up quickly indoors. With hundreds of thousands still waiting for power, local emergency managers in Jefferson County asked people to avoid unnecessary travel while crews cleared roads and restored service.