‘There will be impacts,’ DeSantis warns as Hurricane Isaias approaches North Florida

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said state emergency planners are preparing for Hurricane Isaias to make landfall as a Category 3 storm near the Florida Panhandle, with the National Hurricane Center projecting wind impacts beginning Friday afternoon and landfall late Friday night into Saturday morning. Most models show the storm peaking anywhere from a high-end Category 1 to a low-end Category 3, with storm surge forecast at five to seven feet.

Mandatory evacuations have begun in Franklin County and parts of Fort Walton Beach. The state has staged more than 1,000 generators, 500,000 gallons of gasoline, 1 million gallons of diesel, 35,000 gallons of aviation fuel, and 1.1 million bottles of water, with more than 6,000 utility linemen on standby for restoration.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.