Four people have died after Hurricane Isaias made landfall in Florida early on Saturday, leaving about 670,000 customers without electricity across four southeastern US states, according to local authorities and power-monitoring services.
The storm has since weakened into a post-tropical cyclone, but the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that storm surges, flash flooding, damaging winds and possible tornadoes remained a threat across parts of the southeastern United States.
Two of the deaths were caused by trees falling on homes, according to local media reports and authorities.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said authorities had received no search-and-rescue requests shortly after landfall, suggesting the initial impact was limited. However, officials warned residents to remain cautious as hazardous conditions persisted.
The NHC said the tornado threat was expected to continue on Saturday across parts of Florida’s Panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Power Restoration Underway
Authorities in Florida prioritised electricity restoration as highways, bridges and airports began reopening and emergency teams assessed the damage.
DeSantis said assessments would help officials determine how quickly power could be restored. He added that about 16,000 utility workers had prepared to respond to the storm.
PowerOutage.us reported that, as of midday on Saturday, about 420,000 customers in Florida, 190,000 in Alabama, 43,000 in Georgia and 17,000 in Mississippi remained without electricity.
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Alabama’s emergency management agency warned that fallen trees and power lines had made travel hazardous in Houston County, where a flash flood warning was in effect. The agency said all roads in the county had been closed until further notice.
In Pensacola, Florida, the mayor identified a lack of drinking water as a concern. The city’s airport, the state’s 10th largest, was damaged by the storm and remained closed to commercial flights until further notice.
Gulf Oil Production Disrupted
The hurricane also disrupted oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, although energy companies began preparations to redeploy personnel to offshore facilities.
Shell said it was starting to return workers to its Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito and Appomattox assets, while Chevron said it was advancing efforts to redeploy staff to its platforms and restore full production. Chevron added that the return of crews would continue through Sunday.
Despite the progress, about 69 per cent of oil production and 57 per cent of natural gas output in the US Gulf of Mexico remained shut on Saturday, according to the Marine Minerals Administration.
The agency said 113 production platforms, representing 30 per cent of the total, remained evacuated.
The US Energy Department authorised an emergency exchange of up to four million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to address supply disruptions caused by the hurricane.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said emergency declarations had been approved in Florida and Alabama to ensure federal resources were available to support the response.
