Hurricane Isaias hit Florida ‘like a freight train’ — killing 4 as storm leaves over 670K without power
Four people were killed after deadly Hurricane Isaias hit the southeast “like a freight train” with walloping 105 mph winds.
Three people died from downed trees, while another was killed by fumes from a generator. At least five others have been hospitalized.
The storm made landfall as a Category 2 with 105 mph winds near Destin, Florida, at around 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday — with localized gusts in the area reaching up to 116 mph — hammering homes and communities throughout the Panhandle.
But it still wrought destruction across the southeast, with downed trees killing residents and water flooding many neighborhoods.
Isaias weakened rapidly as it made landfall to a post-tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph by 1 a.m. Friday, according to NBC.
The cyclone is currently moving into northern Alabama dispensing heavy rains and strong wind gusts. The National Hurricane Center says flood watches are still in effect for parts of the southeastern US and the southern Appalachians.
Forecasters project that Georgia and the Carolinas could see up to 10 inches of rain, but totals are likely to be 3-6 inches.
Officials warn that the storm can still create life-threatening hazards, including flash, urban and river flooding.
Over 670,000 people were without power in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to PowerOutage.
Alabama Power reported 267,000 outages but restored around half of the customers’ service by later in the day.
Two people were killed in Escambia County, Florida, in storm-related tragedies, officials said.
One woman was pinned beneath a tree that crashed through her home and was dead by the time fire rescue arrived, Melony Peterson, a spokesperson for Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, said.
Two others were killed in Alabama when a tree fell on a home and another one struck a car, said Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey.
“This storm cannot clear fast enough. It brought in heavy winds throughout Alabama, taking down trees, knocking out power and doing some damage,” Ivey said.
In Dale County, Alabama, a sheriff’s deputy was injured when a tree fell on him while responding to a car accident.
Sheriff Mason Bynum told News4 the deputy was responding to a rollover crash when a tree fell on one of the vehicles involved, trapping the driver and striking the deputy.
The driver was unharmed, but the deputy was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, Bynum says.
Shocking footage from the Sunshine State showed water gushing down driveways and flooding the shores.
“The storm is here. Buckle down at this point. Don’t be getting out on the roads,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference, warning that flash flooding would be a hazard “throughout the region.”
“This is going to be a panhandle-wide event … We’re ready for it, and we just got to get through it.”
As the storm pummeled Florida on Friday, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins told Fox News: “This thing hit like a freight train. It was fast. It came in like a Mike Tyson punch.”
AccuWeather meteorologist Dan DePodwin told The Post, “The worst of the impacts are done.”
Roughly a foot of rain was dumped in many places Friday, DePodwin said.
Showers were still expected throughout the panhandle Saturday, especially in North Carolina and Tennessee Valley — and even tornadoes in some spots.
“The risk area today is about Tallahassee, Florida over to Jacksonville and north towards Charleston, South Carolina and Augusta, Georgia,” said DePodwin.
There will be scattered storms through the rest of the weekend with some areas getting as much as four inches of rain, according to the meteorologist.
That means flash flooding is still a risk, he warned, especially in the Carolinas.
“The main message is most places have good weather for recovery efforts starting today but still be some heavy downpours that cause ponding on our roadways and such and can be a spin up tor,” he said.
With Post wires