What changed
Hurricane Isaias made landfall in Florida’s western panhandle on Friday evening as a Category 2 storm, carrying winds of 110 mph. Florida, Alabama and Georgia declared states of emergency, while Florida and Alabama ordered evacuations as forecasters warned of storm surge reaching up to 9 feet.
Why it matters
The danger is moving beyond the shoreline. Hurricane-force winds reach 35 miles from Isaias’s centre, and tropical-storm-force winds extend as far as 205 miles, putting communities well inland at risk of heavy rain, flooding and possible tornadoes.
More than 350,000 Florida customers and 170,000 in Alabama had already lost power, with about 8,000 Georgia customers affected too. The storm is forecast to cross Alabama and enter the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, so the next test will be how far its flooding, wind damage and outages spread after landfall.
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