Hurricane Isaias leaves trail of destruction across the US Gulf Coast

A significant story is unfolding on the international scene. Crews rally for massive cleanup efforts in Florida and Alabama as weakened Isaias leaves hundreds of thousands in the dark. Residents across the southeastern United States have begun cleanup efforts after Hurricane Isaias, the first Atlantic tropical cyclone of the 2026 season, slammed ashore near Destin, Florida, on Friday. As of midafternoon Sunday, roughly 356,000 customers remain without power in southern Alabama and the northwestern region of Florida, according to data from PowerOutage.

com, an independent tracking website. At its peak, the storm knocked out power to nearly 800,000 homes and businesses across the Gulf Coast. Sarah Gatewood, a spokesperson for the utility company Florida Power and Light (FPL), announced that workers from across Florida and more than two dozen other states had mobilised to restore power.

The Details

At least four deaths have been linked to Isais after it made landfall as a Category 2 storm on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The tempest churned northward into Alabama on Saturday with fierce tropical-storm-force winds before weakening into a post-tropical cyclone and tracking further north towards the Appalachians. Though its power is waning, the storm continues to endanger the mid-Atlantic region with the potential for flash flooding.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), surface observations indicate that Isaias now has maximum sustained winds of 160 km/h (100 mph) and an estimated minimum central pressure of 28. 88 inches, or 978 millibars. Across Florida and Alabama, residents have reported damage from the storm’s high-velocity winds.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.