Isaias turns deadly as hundreds of thousands lose power, flood risk remains
Falling trees killed at least two people in Florida and Alabama. About 800,000 customers were without power, and officials warned of flooding across the U.S. Southeast.
Photo: National Weather Service / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
Former Hurricane Isaias killed at least two people in the U.S. Southeast. A woman died in Escambia County, Florida, when a tree fell on her home, and one person was killed the same way in the Birmingham area of Alabama, local officials said. Isaias came ashore near Destin on Friday evening as a Category 2 hurricane, the first of the Atlantic season, and has since weakened to a post-tropical storm.
About 800,000 customers in Florida, Alabama and Georgia were without power on Saturday, down from nearly 900,000 earlier in the day, according to PowerOutage.us. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said more than 80% of residents in Santa Rosa, Holmes, Washington and Walton counties had no power and that about 16,000 workers were restoring service. The federal government approved emergency declarations for Florida and Alabama, while Georgia declared its own state of emergency.
The main danger is now water. “The risk of flooding is still high,” DeSantis said. “The flooding story is not over,” he added. Robbie Berg of the National Hurricane Center said that even as a post-tropical system, Isaias “still does remain a wind threat, as well as a heavy rainfall threat.” The storm is expected to dissipate over the Tennessee Valley on Sunday.