Isaias made hurricane history before hitting Southeast with 117-mph winds, tornadoes
The first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season unleashed destructive winds, flooding and tornadoes across the Southeast after making landfall along the Florida Panhandle as a category 2 storm.
Hurricane Isaias hit “like a freight train,” according to people there, but the recovery process is already underway.
The first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season roared into the Southeast, where it unleashed flooding rain, destructive winds and tornadoes throughout the weekend.
At least four storm-related deaths had been reported as of Sunday morning. As many as 930,000 customers were without electricity at one point late Saturday morning, but the number of outages has since fallen to around 150,000 nationwide, including 128,000 in Florida, according to PowerOutage.us.
Isaias is now classified by AccuWeather as a Tropical Wind and Rainstorm, but rain and gusty winds continue to spread through parts of the eastern United States.
Isaias becomes first Atlantic hurricane of 2026
Eight named storms formed in the Atlantic before Isaias, but none reached hurricane strength. When Isaias finally did, it broke a 121-year-old record for the latest date in the year that an Atlantic season produced its first hurricane.
The storm intensified quickly in the Gulf, eventually peaking as a major Category 3 hurricane on Friday.
By the time Isaias reached the coast, it was a Category 2 hurricane. The center made landfall near Destin, Florida, at 8:30 p.m. CDT Friday with destructive winds, torrential rain and storm surge hammering the western Florida Panhandle.
Radar shows Hurricane Isaias moving onshore near Destin, Florida, on Oct. 9, 2026 after 8:30 p.m. CT.
A wind gust of 117 mph was observed at Oriole Beach, while storm surge reached 5.51 feet at Panama City Beach and 4.16 feet at Apalachicola. Rainfall totals topped 8 inches in parts of the panhandle, including 8.06 inches in Niceville.
Isaias leaves widespread damage across Florida Panhandle, Southeast
Daylight on Saturday revealed extensive damage across communities near landfall, with roofs torn from homes, businesses and other buildings in Pensacola Beach and Milton. Drone footage from Pensacola Beach showed overturned campers, damaged homes and businesses and significant damage to a high-rise building.
Flooding also inundated parts of Fort Walton Beach, where cars were submerged and water entered homes and businesses. Farther west, downtown Pensacola was littered with fallen trees, shattered streetlights and debris.
For Laura Dean and her family, the damage served as a reminder of how different the outcome could have been.
Dean had planned to ride out Isaias with her 89-year-old father and son at their waterfront condo in Pensacola Beach. They decided at the last minute to evacuate after officials urged residents to leave. Hours later, Isaias ripped through the condo, tearing apart the wall of windows and heavily damaging the upper floor.
"If they ever tell you to leave, leave, or we probably wouldn't be here today," Dean told AccuWeather. "Things can be replaced, your family cannot."
One Pensacola Beach woman says urgent pleas to evacuate pushed her to leave just in time. Hours later, Hurricane Isaias destroyed her home.
Even people who rode out the storm with minimal damage are facing power outages that could last well into the start of the new week. For AccuWeather Storm Chaser Aaron Jayjack, who was in the Florida Panhandle for landfall, the extent of the blackout became clear when he started to make his way out of the hard-hit Florida Panhandle.
"Widespread power outages across this area," Jayjack said. "We left the Destin area, got on I-10 and had to drive 30 miles east before we found power."
The storm also spawned tornadoes as it moved inland. One tornado was caught on video crossing a highway near Newington, Georgia, while another long-lived tornado tracked through parts of Allendale and Barnwell counties in South Carolina. Preliminary reports from South Carolina included damage to a manufactured home and snapped power lines, with no injuries initially reported.
Storm chaser Chris O’Neal captured these videos of a tornado spinning across at least two counties in South Carolina on Oct. 10.
Recovery efforts were underway Sunday, but some communities were still dealing with extended outages and damaged infrastructure. Boil-water notices remained in effect for several Florida Panhandle water systems after the storm disrupted service, while crews continued clearing debris and making repairs.
Isaias spreads rain, gusty winds farther north
By Sunday morning, rain had spread across much of the mid-Atlantic as Isaias continued northward, accompanied by gusty winds. Rain and severe thunderstorms were also affecting parts of the Carolinas.
Multiple tornado warnings were issued across the region, with 23 tornado reports across North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia between Saturday and Sunday in connection with Isaias.
Survey crews have been assessing the storm damage and have confirmed at least three EF0 tornadoes with winds up to 85 mph, and four EF1 tornadoes with winds between 86 and 110 mph.
Isaias headlines a volatile weather weekend
Isaias was just one of several major storms impacting North America over the weekend, with rare alerts issued in California from a different tropical threat.
Rachel delivered tropical downpours to Southern California and other parts of the Southwest, with tropical storm watches issued for just the second time ever for Southern California, according to AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin. The only other time was in 2023, leading up to Hurricane Hilary.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Simon strengthened into a Category 4 storm in the eastern Pacific and headed toward Mexico.
The weekend also featured a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Panama, which triggered a tsunami threat. It was the third-strongest earthquake recorded worldwide so far in 2026.
A satellite image from Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, showing Isaias nearing the Gulf Coast, Rachel churning southeast of California and Simon strengthening along Mexico's Pacific coast. (NASA Worldview)
As recovery begins in the hardest-hit parts of the Southeast, hundreds of thousands of people remain without power and crews face days of cleanup following the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.
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