Hurricane Isaias Storm Hub: Track, Prepare, Closures, Outages

This is Mississippi News Group’s Hurricane Isaias hub — storm status, preparedness, evacuations, closures, and outages in one place. The storm has passed; this page now stands as the storm’s record.

Final update: Saturday, October 10, 2026, at 2:56 p.m. CDT

The storm has passed and moved out of the region. The National Hurricane Center issued its final advisory on Isaias on Saturday morning, and all tropical warnings for the Mississippi coast have been cancelled. This hub now stands as the storm’s record.

Current Storm Status

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, Friday evening as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, then weakened rapidly overnight. It is now a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 35 mph over southern Alabama, according to the National Hurricane Center’s final advisory at 4 a.m. CDT Saturday, October 10. The NHC has issued its last advisory on Isaias; the Weather Prediction Center will continue issuing advisories focused on flooding as the storm tracks north through the Southeast and into the Ohio Valley.

• Location: 32.0°N, 86.5°W — southern Alabama — moving north at 14 mph. At landfall, a wind gust of 116 mph was recorded near Santa Rosa Sound, Florida, and a water level gauge at Panama City Beach measured water 5.6 feet above average high water.
• Landfall: Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, Friday evening at Category 2 strength (105 mph), after being downgraded from Category 3 just before landfall. The NHC’s headline hazard for the remnant storm is continued flash flooding risk, with possible urban and river flooding and tornadoes across the Florida Panhandle, Georgia, and the Carolinas on Saturday.
• Warnings: The NHC has issued its last advisory on Isaias, ending its tropical advisory cycle. All hurricane, tropical storm, and storm surge warnings for the Mississippi coast — including Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties — have been cancelled, and the threat is easing. Remaining flood and tornado watches and warnings are issued by the National Weather Service as the remnant storm moves through Alabama.
• Rainfall: 4–8 inches across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend, and southwest Georgia, with localized totals up to 15 inches; 2–5 inches across much of the rest of the Southeast. Flash, urban, and isolated river flooding are possible. In Mississippi, rainfall estimates have been downgraded: eastern and northern Mississippi could see 1.5–4 inches. Most of North Mississippi is under a flood watch through Sunday morning; the NHC’s tropical watches and warnings for Mississippi have been discontinued as the storm became post-tropical.
• Wind field: Peak winds of 25–35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph swept the Mississippi Coast on Friday night, then largely subsided by Saturday morning, leaving little evidence of damage. Jackson County emergency management reports no major damage or flooding from the storm. Harrison County emergency management says there were no significant weather impacts; its shelter housed 53 people and one pet overnight.
• Expired warning: The NWS Extreme Wind Warning for coastal Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton counties in Florida (gusts to 115 mph) expired at 9 p.m. CT Friday as the storm moved inland.

Sources: National Hurricane Center advisories, October 9–10, 2026.

MEMA Preparedness Checklist

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Stephen McCraney urges residents not to wait until the last minute. Complete these steps now:

• Emergency kit: non-perishable food, water, batteries, medicine, and important papers.
• Emergency plan: have a family communication plan in case you lose power or cell signal.
• Evacuation route: know your route now — especially if you live in a low-lying area.
• Medical needs: have backup power if you or a loved one relies on medical equipment that requires electricity.
• Fuel and neighbors: fill vehicles with gas, check on neighbors, and secure outdoor items — remove yard debris and trim tree branches.
• Alerts: get emergency alerts from reliable sources. More information at msema.org or through the MEMA app.

– Storm response: MEMA has distributed 4,000 sandbags to counties and is coordinating with federal, state, local, volunteer, and private-sector partners on storm response.

Source: Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Evacuation Guidance

Follow evacuation instructions from your local officials promptly — do not wait for conditions to worsen.

• Okaloosa County, Florida: mandatory evacuations for coastal areas began at noon Thursday.
• Dauphin Island, Alabama: evacuation notice for the western portion of the barrier island beginning Thursday evening.
• Baldwin County, Alabama: voluntary evacuations encouraged for residents of low-lying coastal areas; emergency shelters prepared.
• Bay County, Florida: voluntary evacuations for coastal areas; visitors urged to leave.
• Mississippi: shelters have opened across south Mississippi: George County (3161 Cooks Corner Rd, Lucedale), Hancock County (30360 Hwy 603, Perkinston), Harrison County (15035 County Farm Rd, Gulfport), Jackson County (5500 Ballpark Rd, Vancleave; 18413 Hwy 613, Moss Point), and Pearl River County saferoom (124 Rodeo St, Poplarville) plus the Picayune Community Safe Room (501 Laurel St, Picayune). The Harrison County shelter closes Saturday morning, and shelter residents across the coast are returning home. Jackson County officials dropped a voluntary evacuation order Saturday morning after the storm surge forecast was lowered, saying the county is going back to business as usual. Jackson County and the city of Gautier have declared local emergencies.
• Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency covering 40 counties; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded a state of emergency to 27 North Florida counties.

Sources: county emergency management agencies, NHC, October 8–10, 2026.

Closures

• Gautier, Mississippi: municipal offices closed Friday, October 9.
• Schools: multiple school districts in southern Alabama and Mississippi have cancelled classes. Check your local district for the latest.
• Mississippi high school football: several Friday, Oct. 9 games moved to Thursday, Oct. 8, including Gulfport at St. Martin, Harrison Central at West Harrison, Gautier at Long Beach, Pascagoula at Picayune, and others.
• George County, Mississippi: county offices closed at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, reopening Monday, Oct. 12. The Agricola Storm Shelter (3161 Cooks Corner Road, Agricola) is open with Red Cross volunteers on site; county road crews and the Emergency Operation Center are on standby.
• Pensacola, Florida: the city declared a state of emergency and closed City Hall; Pensacola International Airport closed at 10 a.m. Friday.

– Escambia County, Florida: county administrative offices closed through Friday; Escambia County Area Transit suspended all bus, flex, and campus trolley service Thursday through Saturday, with emergency dispatchers coordinating life-sustaining medical trips such as dialysis.

• Memphis/Mid-South: MLGW is on standby. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch from 1 a.m. Oct. 10 to 7 a.m. Oct. 11, with 1–3 inches of rain and wind gusts up to 40 mph expected.
• Events: Gulf Shores’ National Shrimp Festival cancelled; the Southern Tip-Off basketball matchup between Mississippi State and Florida State at the Pensacola Bay Center is off; the University of West Florida cancelled its Saturday home football game.

Sources: local agencies and the Clarion Ledger, October 7–9, 2026. Closure lists change — confirm with the venue or district before traveling.

Power Outages

As of Saturday afternoon, Mississippi outages are back at normal levels — about 599 customers statewide (largest: Entergy, 238; Southern Pine Electric, 215; most affected county: Simpson). The roughly 5,000 customers who lost power overnight in Jackson County have had nearly all service restored. Across the region, more than 450,000 customers are without power in Florida, with the heaviest damage in five Florida Panhandle counties: Escambia (126,303, or 73%), Okaloosa (82,805), Walton (77,770), and Bay (53,370).

Report an outage or check your provider’s map:

• Entergy Mississippi: 1-800-968-8243, or use the outage map in the Entergy app.
• Coast Electric: 1-877-769-2372, or the outage map on coastelectric.com.
• Mississippi Power: outage map at mississippipower.com.
• Statewide tracker: live Mississippi outage map, updated every 15 minutes.

Sources: utility outage reporting lines; Mississippi outage count via statewide tracker, October 10, 2026; Florida county outage totals via the Pensacola News Journal, October 10, 2026.

Official Sources

• National Hurricane Center: nhc.noaa.gov
• Mississippi Emergency Management Agency: msema.org
• National Weather Service Jackson: weather.gov/jan
• Mississippi Department of Transportation road conditions: mdottraffic.com

This hub has been finalized with its last update on Saturday, October 10, 2026, and remains as the storm’s record.