Hurricane Isaias Approaches Landfall Near Destin With 110 MPH Winds and Thousands Without Power in the Florida Panhandle

Hurricane Isaias was closing in on the Florida Panhandle on Friday night, with its center about 45 miles south-southeast of Pensacola and maximum sustained winds of 110 mph at 8 p.m. Eastern, according to the National Hurricane Center. The strong Category 2 storm was moving north at about 18 mph, and forecasters expected landfall near Destin within the next one to two hours, with weakening after the center moves ashore and a transition to a post-tropical system over Alabama on Saturday.

The fiercest winds were already moving onshore. A WeatherFlow station in Gulf Breeze reported sustained winds of 83 mph with a gust to 97 mph, Pensacola International Airport reported a gust of 71 mph, and the National Weather Service said gusts in the Pensacola area were running in the 80 to 90 mph range. The weather service kept an extreme wind warning in effect until 8:45 p.m. for parts of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties, urging residents to take shelter in an interior room as the eyewall approached.

Power out, services suspended as conditions deteriorate

More than 21,000 customers had reported power outages in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties on Florida Power & Light’s tracker, including about 15,500 in Escambia County, and officials said widespread outages were expected through the night. FPL crews had sheltered for the night and would not begin restoring power until conditions improved, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said. Escambia County had suspended most EMS and fire-rescue responses until the storm passes, downed power lines and trees were blocking roads in parts of the county, and the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority placed its entire service area under a precautionary boil-water notice because of numerous water outages.

Major bridges around Pensacola and Santa Rosa County had closed earlier in the day, tropical-storm conditions had gripped the area since early afternoon, and Gov. Ron DeSantis had expanded a state of emergency to 27 North Florida counties on Thursday.

Surge, flooding rain and tornadoes in the forecast

Forecasters warned of life-threatening storm surge of 6 to 9 feet near and to the right of where the center crosses the coast, topped by large waves. Escambia County was under a flash flood warning past midnight after 2 to 3 inches of rain had fallen with several more inches possible, and southern Santa Rosa County faced the possibility of 5 to 7 additional inches. Rainfall of 4 to 8 inches was forecast across parts of the Panhandle, southwestern Alabama and southwestern Georgia, with isolated coastal totals up to 15 inches.

The tornado threat was expected to continue through the night east of the center across the Panhandle and into southern Georgia, with roughly 2 million people under a tornado watch. Because of the storm’s fast forward motion, officials warned that hurricane-force gusts could reach as far as 100 miles inland, with tropical-storm conditions extending from New Orleans to the Tallahassee area.

Reporting based on coverage by the Pensacola News Journal and USA Today.