Updated October 10: Four people were reported dead after Isaias struck the Florida Panhandle as a Category 2 hurricane, while hundreds of thousands of customers remained without electricity across the southeastern United States.

Reuters reported Saturday afternoon that local authorities had linked four deaths to the storm. Two involved trees falling on homes. The identities of the victims and a complete official accounting were not available, and Florida's governor had said earlier Saturday that the state had not yet confirmed a storm-related death.

About 670,000 customers remain without power

Approximately 670,000 customers remained without electricity at midday Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us figures cited by Reuters. The total included about 420,000 in Florida, 190,000 in Alabama, 43,000 in Georgia and 17,000 in Mississippi.

That count was below an earlier peak of roughly 727,000 outages reported across Florida and Alabama alone, indicating that restoration work had begun while the system continued moving inland.

Florida said more than 16,000 lineworkers and restoration personnel had been positioned before landfall. Pensacola International Airport remained closed to commercial flights because of storm damage, while other roads, bridges and airports were reopening as conditions allowed.

Warnings end in Alabama, but hazards remain

Isaias lost its tropical characteristics over Alabama early Saturday. The Alabama Emergency Management Agency said all hurricane and tropical-storm warnings had been discontinued, although high-wind and flood alerts remained for parts of the state into the evening.

The National Hurricane Center continued to warn about flash flooding, damaging wind and tornado risks farther east and northeast as the remnants moved inland. Officials urged residents to avoid downed power lines, flooded roads and other post-storm hazards.

Energy operations begin to recover

Shell and Chevron said they were beginning to return crews to Gulf of Mexico facilities, but about 69 per cent of offshore oil output and 57 per cent of natural-gas production remained shut Saturday, Reuters reported.

The U.S. Energy Department also authorized an emergency exchange of up to four million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to address supply disruptions tied to the storm.

Landfall followed a Category 3 peak

Isaias came ashore near Destin at about 8:30 p.m. Central time Friday with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph — about 169 km/h. It had briefly reached Category 3 strength earlier Friday with 120-mph winds.

Canadian travellers with plans in the Gulf Coast and southeastern United States should continue checking airline, road and accommodation conditions while power disruptions and localized flooding persist.

What changed

The previous edition recorded Isaias becoming post-tropical and outages reaching approximately 727,000 in Florida and Alabama. This update adds the later reported death toll of four, the current four-state outage count of about 670,000, recovery details and the emergency oil exchange.

The original publication date and article URL are unchanged. Further updates will depend on official casualty confirmation and post-storm damage assessments.

Sources: Reuters, updated October 10; Florida Division of Emergency Management recovery update, October 10; Alabama Emergency Management Agency, October 10; U.S. National Hurricane Center advisory archive.

AI-generated editorial illustration for The Northern Current. A conceptual Gulf hurricane scene; this is not a photograph of Hurricane Isaias.