Hurricane Isaias Rips Roofs Off Buildings, Leaves Hundreds of Thousands Without Power

Reported by:

Cherry Meigh Timbol
News Content Editor

Published October 10, 2026

Hurricane Isaias battered Florida’s Gulf Coast after making landfall near Destin on Friday, October 9, tearing part of a hotel roof off in Pensacola, flooding roads and bringing down trees and power lines. The storm struck as a Category 2 hurricane before weakening as it moved inland. Hundreds of thousands of customers across Florida and neighboring Alabama lost electricity, while emergency crews faced dangerous conditions.

The storm also caused widespread flooding in Destin and surrounding communities, while police in Pensacola urged residents to stay off roads blocked by debris and fallen power lines. More than 726,000 customers in Florida and Alabama were without electricity early Saturday, according to outage tracking data. Emergency response operations were temporarily suspended in some areas because of hazardous conditions.

Although Isaias weakened to a post-tropical cyclone by Saturday, forecasters warned that heavy rainfall could still trigger flash flooding across parts of the Southeast. Some areas were expected to receive 4 to 8 inches of rain through the weekend, with possible tornadoes in portions of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas. Officials urged residents to avoid flooded roads and follow local emergency instructions as crews assessed the damage and worked to restore power.