Hurricane Isaias brings wind, water and destruction

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida Friday night with 110 mph winds, killing at least four people in Florida and Alabama and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes across the Southeast. Two deaths were confirmed in Escambia County, including a man found in a closed garage with a generator running inside it; two more deaths occurred in Alabama, one from a falling tree and one in a crash involving a downed tree.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters Saturday that the state had avoided the large-scale search and rescue operations seen in past storms, describing local response as handled through 'ordinary course of business.' In Pensacola, residents of the Welcome Mat Mobile Home Park returned to find trees driven through their homes, including that of a woman who had survived four prior hurricanes in the same trailer.

Outage trackers showed about 437,000 customers without power in Florida, 187,000 in Alabama and nearly 44,900 in Georgia as of Saturday afternoon. President Trump approved emergency declarations for Florida and Alabama and canceled a planned appearance at a college football game in Tuscaloosa; governors in Georgia and North Carolina also activated emergency response measures.

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