Hurricane Isaias Pounds Florida Panhandle as Eye Makes Landfall

Name: Hurricane Isaias Pounds Florida Panhandle as Eye Makes Landfall
Uploaded: 2026-10-10T02:34:07.000Z
Duration: 16 min 39 s
Description: NBC News posted the full Oct. 9 episode of “NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas” to YouTube. The channel’s description says Hurricane Isaias is pounding the Florida Panhandle and conditions are rapidly deteriorating as the storm’s powerful eye moves on shore, with reporters on the ground carrying the latest developments.

Isaias came ashore Friday with 105 mph winds, cut power to nearly 800,000 and prompted emergencies in Florida, Alabama and Georgia.

IDBy IJR Editor DeskOct 11, 2026

NBC News posted the full Oct. 9 episode of “NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas” to YouTube. The channel’s description says Hurricane Isaias is pounding the Florida Panhandle and conditions are rapidly deteriorating as the storm’s powerful eye moves on shore, with reporters on the ground carrying the latest developments.

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, around 8:35 p.m. Central Time Friday with winds up to 105 mph, according to reporting by Justin Boggs. By 11 p.m. the winds had weakened to 90 mph, making it a Category 1. It became a post-tropical cyclone over Alabama by early Saturday morning while still dumping heavy rain and gusty winds across much of the South. Government forecasters had discontinued all tropical storm and hurricane warnings by 4 a.m. Central, Boggs wrote, though flooding and wind advisories remained.

A Hurricane Warning stayed in effect from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to the Bay/Gulf County Line in Florida as the eye arrived over land. The BBC, in a dispatch by Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu and Nardine Saad, said up to 9 feet of flooding was possible in some areas. Florida, Alabama and Georgia each issued states of emergency. Florida placed 27 counties under an emergency order after Gov. Ron DeSantis added Citrus and Levy counties, News From The States reported. Florida activated 175 Florida State Guard members and about 5,000 National Guard members, along with roughly 6,000 utility workers, according to NBC 6 South Florida. Florida Power & Light mobilized 16,000 linemen and personnel, DeSantis said. His office reported that three assisted living facilities, one nursing home and one hospital had been evacuated.

Nearly 800,000 customers were without power Saturday morning. The BBC put the Florida total above 350,000, Alabama at 170,000 and Georgia at about 8,000. “Water levels are rising along the coast as dangerous weather conditions and life-threatening flash flooding spread inland,” DeSantis said in a Tallahassee briefing quoted by News From The States. “Assume you’re going to lose power.” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said tourists in the Mobile Bay area should leave and told residents across the state to prepare. “We’re worried about strong winds, heavy rain and possible spin-off tornadoes in certain parts of the state,” Ivey said. “We often hear in emergency management, ‘Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.’ That is the approach we need with this particular storm system.” Florida Sen. Rick Scott urged people in designated areas to move immediately, posting: “DO NOT WAIT! Get out NOW!”

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NBC NewsOct 10, 2026

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NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas Full Episode - Oct. 9

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Isaias was the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. It developed more than four months in, an unusually quiet stretch tied to a strong El Niño, NBC 6 and the BBC both reported. University of Georgia meteorologist Marshall Shepherd told Boggs’s outlet that warm Gulf water can let storms hold together even when shear is high. “I am never comfortable when we have storms in the Gulf and they’re intensifying even though there’s an unfavorable shear environment,” Shepherd said. “These storms can outperform when there’s really warm water, and there’s plenty of that in the Gulf.”

AP video shot by Octavio Jones showed long lines at gas stations in Mobile, Alabama, as residents filled containers, generators and cars. Residents also collected sandbags at the James Seals Jr. Parks & Recreation Center in Mobile ahead of landfall, according to AP Photo credit to Jones and AP video by Emilie Megnien. Getty images carried by the BBC showed two men in Gulf Breeze, Florida, boarding up shop windows. Businesses in downtown Pensacola were almost entirely closed Friday afternoon, with sandbags in place and police cars stationed throughout the area, News From The States reported. John Guoth, a Navarre resident who told the BBC he and his wife would stay put, said: “It’s a hurricane, we get them all the time... we kind of knew that when we moved here.”