Isaias hit the Florida Panhandle near Destin as a Category 2 on Friday evening, unleashing damaging winds, flooding and widespread outages across the Gulf Coast, then weakened rapidly before rapidly losing tropical characteristics and being classified as post-tropical by the National Hurricane Center.
The system is set to keep tropical-storm-style conditions going into Saturday morning as it moves north through Alabama and then toward the Tennessee and Ohio valleys into Sunday. Forecasters call for a wide area to receive up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain, with isolated amounts approaching 15 inches.
The Weather Prediction Center flagged a moderate risk of excessive rainfall from western North Carolina down through Georgia on Saturday. That stretch was hammered in 2024 when Hurricane Helene flooded cities, cut off roads and caused at least 249 deaths nationwide. Marc Chenard, who serves as a senior branch forecaster at the center, said Isaias is not expected to match Helene's destruction, but cautioned, "We still have to keep an eye on the southern Appalachians. It still looks like there could be some significant impacts there through the day."
This marks the first US hurricane landfall in almost two years.
The storm cut electricity to hundreds of thousands across three states, and more than 875,000 homes and businesses were offline as of Saturday morning, PowerOutage.com reported. From Pensacola Beach, AccuWeather's Bill Wadell said the system weakened inland, but warned that fallen lines, debris and lingering flooding remain hazards as crews work to restore power and survey damage.
The Storm Prediction Center said roughly 12.6 million people stretching from Florida to Virginia fall under a level two severe thunderstorm outlook through the weekend, and the pattern could spawn heavy rain and even tornadoes reaching into the Carolinas.
Offshore, energy producers in the Gulf of Mexico curtailed output as the storm approached, evacuated platform crews and moved rigs out of the projected track.
Storm damage and energy infrastructure risk arrive together on the Gulf. Market Briefs covers that exposure free every weekday.
As the East starts to dry out, a pair of Pacific systems steps in. According to the National Hurricane Center, Tropical Storm Rachel is on track to arrive near northern Baja California along the US-Mexico boundary late Saturday, after which it will push flooding rainfall into the US Southwest, impacting parts of California, Arizona and Nevada. Rare tropical storm watches are posted in Southern California, including San Diego.
Farther south, Hurricane Simon is forecast to approach near Manzanillo, Mexico, overnight as a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale with sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. Rainfall could reach 20 inches over a wide area, with isolated totals up to 40 inches. The hurricane center warned, "Catastrophic wind and life-threatening storm surge impacts are likely along a portion of the west-central coast of Mexico," and the rains "will produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides."
Storms like this can jolt utilities, insurers and energy producers all at once: outages and restoration costs onshore, plus temporarily lower oil output offshore. With Isaias marking the first US landfalling hurricane in nearly two years, watch how power restoration progresses and how quickly Gulf production rebounds. If you have exposure tied to California, Arizona or Nevada, Rachel's flooding risk and those unusual tropical storm watches in Southern California are worth tracking through the weekend.
Refinery outages reach fuel prices within days of landfall. Join Market Briefs free and follow the impact.
