{"id":424345,"date":"2026-10-10T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424345\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:56:09","slug":"hurricane-isaias-hit-florida-like-a-freight-train-as-storm-leaves-thousands-without-power-lt-gov-jay-collins-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424345\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Isaias hit Florida ‘like a freight train’ as storm leaves thousands without power, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people were killed after deadly Hurricane Isaias<\/a> hit the southeast \u201clike a freight train\u201d with walloping 105 mph winds.<\/p>\n

The victims died in separate tragedies when trees fell on their homes in Escambia County, Florida, and Birmingham, Alabama.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe storm is here. Buckle down at this point. Don\u2019t be getting out on the roads,\u201d Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference, warning that flash flooding would be a hazard \u201cthroughout the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins gives an update as the state is hit by Hurricane Isaias on Oct. 9, 2026. Fox News<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be a panhandle-wide event \u2026 We\u2019re ready for it, and we just got to get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The storm was expected to reach Hurricane 3 status<\/a> \u2014 but weakened before it came ashore and by early Saturday was no longer considered a hurricane as its wind speeds continued to decrease.<\/p>\n

Palm trees blow in the wind as floodwaters submerge a road during Hurricane Isaias in Destin, Fla., Friday, Oct. 9, 2020.<\/p>\n

But it still wrought destruction across the southeast, with downed trees killing residents and water flooding many neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

One woman in Escambia County, Florida, died late Friday when a tree smashed into her home, Sheriff Chip Simmons said.<\/p>\n

Palm trees blow in the wind as severe flash flooding lashes Destin, Fla., on Friday, Oct. 9, as Hurricane Isaias approaches. <\/p>\n

Another person was killed in Alabama after a tree fell onto a Birmingham home early Saturday, Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Coker told the Tuscaloosa News.<\/a><\/p>\n

In Dale County, Alabama, a sheriff\u2019s deputy was injured when a tree fell on him while responding to a car accident.<\/p>\n

Both Destin and Fort Walton Beach were under an extreme wind warning and flash flood emergency warning.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Mason Bynum told News4<\/a> the deputy was responding to a rollover crash when a tree fell on one of the vehicles involved, trapping the driver and striking the deputy.<\/p>\n

The driver was unharmed, but the deputy was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, Bynum says.<\/p>\n

More than 664,000 customers in Florida and Alabama were without power early Saturday, according to<\/a> poweroutage.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shocking footage from the Sunshine State showed water<\/a> gushing down driveways and flooding the shores.<\/p>\n

Palm trees blow in strong winds and floodwaters rise in Destin, Fla., as Hurricane Isaias approaches Friday, Oct. 9, in footage filmed by Clint Hendricks IV.<\/p>\n

Roughly 900,000 people had heeded the warnings to leave Isaias\u2019 path before it made landfall with 105 mph winds near Destin, Fla.<\/a>, around 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis thing hit like a freight train. It was fast. It came in like a Mike Tyson punch,\u201d Lt. Gov. Jay Collins told Fox News on Friday.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s real, I\u2019m sure there is going to be real damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some might have ridden it out, if you have please hunker down, stay safe, let\u2019s not put our first responders at risk and they\u2019ll get to you as soon as humanly possible, but let\u2019s let them do their job and remain safe as well,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

But AccuWeather meteorologist Dan DePodwin told The Post, \u201cThe worst of the impacts are done.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fence begins to topple over as Hurricane winds and rain strike Florida\u2019s Panhandle. Clint Hendricks IV via Storyful<\/p>\n

Roughly a foot of rain was dumped in many places Friday, DePodwin said.<\/p>\n

Showers were still expected throughout the panhandle Saturday, especially in North Carolina and Tennessee Valley \u2014 and even tornadoes in some spots.<\/p>\n

Palm trees are caught in strong gusts of wind as rain begins to flood the streets of Santa Rosa Beach. Clint Hendricks IV via Storyful<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk area today is about Tallahassee, Florida over to Jacksonville and north towards Charleston, South Carolina and Augusta, Georgia,\u201d said DePodwin.<\/p>\n

There will be scattered storms through the rest of the weekend with some areas getting as much as four inches of rain, according to the meteorologist.<\/p>\n

That means flash flooding is still a risk, he warned, especially in the Carolinas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main message is most places have good weather for recovery efforts starting today but still be some heavy downpours that cause ponding on our roadways and such and can be a spin up tor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two people were killed after deadly Hurricane Isaias hit the southeast \u201clike a freight train\u201d with walloping 105…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14088,28,30,29,944,4278],"class_list":["post-424345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-extreme-weather","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hurricanes","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}