Hurricane Isaias Kills Four, Knocks Out Power to 670,000 Customers in US Southeast

Powerful Hurricane Isaias has battered the southeastern US coast, killing at least four people and leaving around 670,000 customers without electricity across Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

The storm made landfall early Saturday, bringing destructive winds and heavy rainfall. Two of the victims were killed when large trees fell onto their homes.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that the threat of tornadoes remained in parts of Florida’s Panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas.

According to outage-tracking website PowerOutage.us, around 420,000 customers in Florida were without electricity as of Saturday afternoon. Another 190,000 customers were affected in Alabama, while approximately 43,000 in Georgia and 17,000 in Mississippi had lost power.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said assessing the damage and restoring electricity as quickly as possible were the government’s top priorities. Around 16,000 utility workers were deployed to assist with recovery efforts.

Pensacola International Airport was also closed to all commercial flights because of storm damage.

The hurricane disrupted energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing the shutdown of approximately 69 per cent of oil output and 57 per cent of natural gas production.

To help address potential fuel supply disruptions, the US Department of Energy authorised the emergency release of up to four million barrels of crude oil from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

US President Donald Trump said the overall situation was under control when asked by reporters about preparations for the storm.

The president also approved emergency declarations for Florida and Alabama, paving the way for federal assistance to support disaster response and recovery operations.

Authorities continued to assess the damage, restore power and monitor the risk of further severe weather across the affected states.