Hurricane Isaias Strengthens Toward a Gulf Coast Landfall in Florida

Hurricane Isaias is strengthening in the Gulf. It reached eighty-five mile an hour winds, a Category One, on Thursday morning, and forecasters expect it to become a strong Category Two, with a hundred and ten mile an hour winds, at landfall late tonight or early Saturday, somewhere between Mobile, Alabama and Panama City, Florida, with Pensacola near the center of the track.

Hurricane warnings run from Ocean Springs, Mississippi to the Bay and Gulf County line in Florida. Expect storm surge of five to seven feet, rainfall of three to seven inches with isolated totals near ten, and possible tornadoes.

Evacuations are underway in Franklin and Walton counties in Florida, and states of emergency are declared in Florida and Alabama. Offshore producers have shut in significant Gulf output.

Isaias is the first hurricane of the twenty twenty-six Atlantic season, and the latest first hurricane in a hundred and eleven years, tying a record set in nineteen oh five. The unusually quiet season is being blamed on a strong El Nino.

For communities along the warned stretch of coast, the immediate concerns are the surge, the heavy rainfall and the tornado risk as the storm comes ashore, with the track centered near Pensacola and the landfall window running from late tonight into early Saturday.

The warning area covers a long stretch of the northern Gulf Coast, running from Ocean Springs, Mississippi in the west to the Bay and Gulf County line in Florida in the east. Along that stretch, preparations include the evacuations in Franklin and Walton counties, the states of emergency in Florida and Alabama, and the shut-in of significant offshore production in the Gulf.

From the October 9 episode of The World Briefing Room.