Latest / Best of: Features / Isaias weakens but flooding threat persists as hundreds of thousands grapple with power outages

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Isaias weakens but flooding threat persists as hundreds of thousands grapple with power outages · Best of: Features

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  Four dead from storm as Isaias brings threat of floods across the
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  south east. Written by Emily Megnin, Gerald Herbert, and Michael Casey. This
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  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. Panama
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  City Beach, Florida, the AP. Isayas peeled off hotel and conobinium rooftops
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  and facades along the Florida panhandle before charging North Saturday, dishing out
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  torrential rains and the threat of flash floods and tornadoes across the
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  southeast. At least four deaths were linked to The storm including two
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  people killed when trees fell onto homes in Florida and Alabama. Forecasters
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  warned that flooding could stretch into the Appalachians. Isaias came ashore as
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  a Category two Hurricane Friday near Destin, Florida, a Gulf Coast vacation
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  spot filled with high rises and tourist shops. The storm weakened overnight
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  but remained dangerous. Despite warnings of storm surges ahead of the storm,
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  several major routes along the coast were open by daybreak Saturday, and
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  free of down trees and power lines typically seen after major hurricanes.
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  Scattered damage across the Gulf Coast Within the first hours after landfall,
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  nearly 900,000 customers were without power, mostly in Florida and Alabama. Hurricane
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  force winds in the Florida panhandle blew the roof off a Pensacola
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  hotel, and the city's mayor said the airport took some damage. The
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  storm flattened a boathouse in Destin and ripped away part of the
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  facade of a high rise in Panama City Beach. A worker in
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  a condominium parking lot swept piles of the building's insulation, while others
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  put back beach chairs that had been tossed about. In
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  Florida's Escambia County, Sheriff Chip Simmons said a woman's was killed when
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  a tree fell on Her home and a man died of carbon
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  monoxide fumes from a generator running in his garage. Four of the
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  man's family members, ranging in age from four to seventy two, were
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  treated but expected to survive, the Sheriff said. Nearby in Gulf Breeze,
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  Jame Mietitch wiped tears away Saturday as she surveyed the damage to
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  her apartment. Her living room was soaked and covered in insulation. She
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  and her thirteen year old daughter, Juliana Jackson, hid beneath a mattress
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  before the storm tore off part of their roof. The noise got
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  so loud, and I just kept hearing things break and crash into
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  everything, Mietik said. The rest of their apartment complex was littered with
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  roof shingles and broken beams from a wooden fence. The wines uprooted
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  trees and flipped a truck on its side. It's going to be
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  okay, Matique said. No matter what, we're going to make it. Isaias
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  hits Alabama with devastating winds. Isaiah's, the first hurricane of the Atlantic
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  season, roared farther into Alabama with tropical force winds. One person died
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  when a tree fell on a house in Birmingham, said Cory Moon,
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  the city's fire chief. A second storm related death in Alabama was
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  attributed to a motor vehicle crash involving a downed tree in Barber
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  County, said.
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  Josh Johnson of the state's emergency management agency. Along Alabama's Gulf Coast,
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  authorities in Mobile reported numerous down trees and power lines. Morani Adams,
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  who rode out the storm with her family and their chickens in
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  Gulf Shores, Alabama, said the winds rocked their home, but it was
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  nothing like hurricane Sally, which left water under their elevated house. I
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  feel very much more relieved today, she said. Wind and rain still
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  threaten the southeast. President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Georgia
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  after earlier doing the same for Florida and Alabama, allowing for federal
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  aid. The US Energy Department authorized emergency exchanges of crude oil from
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  the nation's strategic petroleum reserve to address disruptions in supply because of
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  the storm. The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually quiet this year,
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  and Isaias was the first hurricane to hit the eastern U.S. Since
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  2024. The National Weather Service advised that parts of Georgia and the
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  Carolinas could see heavy rains capable of causing flash floods. The storm
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  was expected to move into the Tennessee Valley, and then the mid
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  Atlantic on Sunday. A pair of storms in the Pacific Ocean Meanwhile,
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  in the Pacific, Simon strengthened into a Category four hurricane as it
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  approached Mexico's coast. Simon was expected to bring heavy rainfall beginning Sunday
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  to parts of southwestern Mexico, with life threatening flooding and mudslides. Tropical
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  storm Rachel was also expected to bring heavy winds and rain to
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  northern Mexico and Southern California over the weekend. Casey reported from Boston.
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  Associated Press reporters Sophie Bates in Gulf Breeze, Thomas Strong in Washington,
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  Julie Walker in New York, Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis, and John Sewer
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  in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.