Hurricane Isaias downed power lines as it neared the Florida coast | Today’s news
(Bloomberg) — Hurricane Isaias caused power outages as it approached the U.S. Gulf Coast Friday night, bringing extreme wind gusts and dangerous storm surge to the region.
Isaias weakened as it approached land with winds reaching 110 miles (177 kilometers) per hour, making it a powerful Category 2 storm on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said at 8 p.m. New York time. The storm, which reached major hurricane status earlier in the day, was about 45 miles south of Pensacola, Florida.
More than 380,000 homes and businesses in Florida and Alabama were without power at nearly 8:30 p.m. New York time as the eye of the storm approached the coast, PowerOutage.com reports.
The hurricane is expected to come ashore along the coast of the western belt of Florida. A storm and tropical storm warning has extended west into Louisiana.
In addition to damaging winds, Isaias is forecast to push up to 9 feet (3 meters) of water ashore on the Alabama-Florida border, the center said.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” Robbie Berg, the center’s warning coordinating meteorologist, wrote in an earlier advisory. “Persons in these areas should take all necessary precautions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other hazardous conditions.”
Oil producers in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico shut in 1,458,814 barrels a day of oil production in response to Hurricane Isaias, or 72% of the region’s output, the Marine Minerals Administration said in a statement Friday. The shutdowns also include 1.259 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas, or 59% of regional production, and 129 rigs were evacuated by midday in New York. Several ports are also closing ahead of the hurricane, disrupting oil shipments by sea.
There are three fuel production facilities in or near the projected route, including Chevron Corp.’s refinery. with a capacity of 356,000 barrels per day in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Even small production losses could trigger a spike in prices, with US gasoline and diesel inventories already well below seasonal norms. Natural gas production in the Persian Gulf also fell, with around 57% of regional production shut down.
However, compared to earlier forecasts, Isaias’ eastward shift limited the impact on oil, gas and LNG production facilities in the Persian Gulf, according to Tradition Energy’s Gary Cunningham.
“Isaias remains stronger than originally anticipated, but its track is more to the east,” Cunningham said in an email, limiting the impact on Gulf production and LNG export facilities.
Natural gas futures fell on Friday as traders weighed production losses with the potential for storm damage to curb regional energy demand. November gas was trading near $3.14 per million British thermal units on Friday morning, after settling at $3.168 on Thursday.
Florida suspended tolls on bridges in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties to help people evacuate, while Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 27 counties.
President Donald Trump announced that he is canceling his plans to attend Saturday’s football game between the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa so as not to disrupt the emergency response.
After coming ashore, Isaias is forecast to race across Alabama and into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, where 8 to 12 inches of rain will fall, said Tyler Roys, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc.
On the eastern side of the storm, up to 8 inches could fall across parts of the Carolinas, including areas devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene in 2024.
In Alabama, the largest provider of multi-risk homeowners insurance is State Farm, with a 26.7% market share in 2025, according to the most recent data available from AM Best. In Florida, the leading home insurers are state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Inc., Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. and Universal Insurance Holdings Inc., all with more than 7% market share last year, according to the same data.
Florida-based Duke Energy said workers were ready to respond to the outages. “Our crews are ready to restore power as soon as conditions allow,” said Todd Fountain, plant manager.
At the same time, Tropical Storm Rachel is forecast to hit northern Baja California late Saturday, sending heavy rain and damaging wind gusts to southern California, Arizona and as far north as Salt Lake City, Utah, Roys said. A shift in track could bring the storm closer to San Diego, which would be a rare event.
Further south, the stronger Hurricane Simon, with top winds of 100 mph, is forecast to reach Category 4 strength on Saturday as it makes landfall in Jalisco and Colima, potentially threatening the key port of Manzanillo, Mexico’s busiest Pacific port. In addition to containerized cargo and shipping to Asian markets, Manzanillo also hosts a key LNG import terminal, fuel storage terminals and a number of power plants.
Heavy rain from Simon has already wreaked havoc in the Mexican state of Guerrero, with residents in several towns suffering power outages yesterday, according to the state’s Comision Federal de Electricidad. As of Friday morning, CFE had restored about 90% of electricity in the affected area, the head of the power company, Emilia Calleja, said at a press conference.
Subscribe to the Weather Watch newsletter – track the market, business and economic impacts of extreme weather with Bloomberg.
–With assistance from Will Kubzansky, Julian Hast, Mary Hui, Ruth Liao, Ben Sharples, Naureen S. Malik, Alex Rajbhandari, Gonzalo Soto, Scott Squires, Lauren Rosenthal, and Joe Wertz.
(Update on storm strength in second paragraph, details throughout.)
More such stories are available at bloomberg.com
