Updated

Hurricane Isaias, the first Atlantic hurricane of the belated 2026 season, made landfall near Destin, Florida on Friday evening (Oct 9) as a category 2 storm with winds of about 105 mph, after briefly reaching category 3 strength earlier in the day. Governors of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi declared states of emergency, and millions of residents from Louisiana to Florida were placed under evacuation and hurricane-warning orders as officials warned of life-threatening storm surge up to 7ft, waves as high as 30ft, damaging winds and flash flooding spreading inland. GDACS estimated roughly 946,000 people could be affected by category-1-strength winds or higher. As the storm moved inland over the western Florida Panhandle it weakened to a tropical storm but continued producing damaging gusts and a flash-flood threat into Georgia and beyond; local NWS statements were issued for Tallahassee and Atlanta. The event is seen as an early test for a downsized FEMA, with National Guard troops, search-and-rescue teams and utility crews mobilized across the region.