{"id":369734,"date":"2026-10-10T11:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T11:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369734\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T11:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T11:44:15","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-ny\/369734\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Isaias hit Florida ‘like a freight train’ as storm leaves thousands without power, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurricane Isaias struck Florida<\/a> \u201clike a freight train\u201d as the storm made landfall over the state\u2019s Panhandle and left roughly 430,000 in darkness on Saturday morning, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins said.<\/p>\n

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

Collins shared an estimated 900,000 people had heeded the warnings to leave Isaias path before it made landfall near Destin, Fla. as a Category 2 storm<\/a> around 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday.<\/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<\/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

Isaias was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone as it worked its way inland and maximum sustained winds to 35 mph, the National Weather Service said in its final advisory post on the storm at 5 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to have a Michael-like event here, we\u2019re its just going to sit and have pockets of rain, thank goodness,\u201d Collins said, referring to the deadly Category 5 that whalloped the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 10, 2018.<\/p>\n

Preliminary reports didn\u2019t show any catastrophic damage to the Sunshine State but Collins warned the storm isn\u2019t over.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real extent of the damage as this thing crested and it hit shore, I think you\u2019ll start to see good feedback coming through,\u201d he said \u201cWe\u2019re not hearing anything dire at this moment, God willing thats how it stays.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican leader, who has been in office since August 2025, revealed only power outages and radio damage have been reported.<\/p>\n

About 429,773 Floridians were without power as of 7 a.m. Saturday, according to tracker PowerOutage.US.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe pushed really hard to have people listen to the evacuation orders, its just not worth the risk to you and yours,\u201d Collins said. \u201cYou got to listen, got to lead and you\u2019re going to live. It\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fence begins to topple over as Hurricane winds and rain strike Florida\u2019s Panhandle on Oct. 9, 2026. Clint Hendricks IV via Storyful<\/p>\n

Palm trees are caught in strong gusts of wind as rain begins to flood the streets of Santa Rosa Beach on Oct. 9, 2026. Clint Hendricks IV via Storyful<\/p>\n

Collins applauded his leadership along with Gov. Ron DeSantis during the state\u2019s preparations for the storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve led from the front. We have prioritized response in making sure we are on top of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Collins said over 5,000 National Guard were on standby along with 400 state guard.<\/p>\n

Over 6,000 utility vehicles and people were prepared to help with power outages across the Panhandle.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to remind people, once the storm is passed the risk is not over,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t go out there, don\u2019t get in water puddles or exposed water. Look out for power lines and remain safe. Use extreme caution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hurricane Isaias struck Florida \u201clike a freight train\u201d as the storm made landfall over the state\u2019s Panhandle and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[899,3640,13676,9,11,10,49,51,50,58],"class_list":["post-369734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-extreme-weather","tag-florida","tag-hurricanes","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}