Florida, Alabama residents clean up after Hurricane Isaias

More than 230,000 customers in Florida and 30,000 in Alabama were without power Sunday evening as residents recovered in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias, according to PowerOutage.com. Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, hit the Florida Panhandle as a Category 2 storm on Friday. Local officials blamed the hurricane for the deaths of four people, mainly due to falling trees. Drone footage showed extensive damage to homes in Pensacola Beach and Milton, Fla., and wind gusts blew the roof off a hotel in Pensacola. As the storm moved inland on Saturday and Sunday, it spawned around a dozen tornadoes in eastern Georgia and southwest South Carolina. Heavy rains also caused flooding and landslides in North Carolina, where some areas received up to 9½ inches of rain in 24 hours.

In Florida, the state’s National Guard assisted in handing out water, ice, and other relief supplies on Sunday. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that utility workers with CHELCO, a utility serving Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, and Santa Rosa counties, expected to restore electricity to 95% of customers without power by Tuesday.

Is bad weather affecting any other states? In California, Tropical Storm Rachel battered the coast on Sunday, damaging waterfront homes in Long Beach, dumping rain, and leaving 22,000 Californians without power. As the storm moved east, it dropped an inch of rain in Las Vegas, Nev., causing significant flooding downtown.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Simon, a Category 4 storm, swept along Mexico’s Pacific coast on Sunday and was on track to hit the Puerto Vallarta tourist area around midnight. Weather officials expected the hurricane to produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides along the coast, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called on residents to stay sheltered.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report about relief workers with Convoy of Hope who were deploying to help Floridians affected by the storm.