WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of people in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were without power early Saturday after Isaias crashed into the U.S. Gulf Coast as a dangerous hurricane and left flooded roads and downed trees in its wake as it moved inland.
The storm made landfall Friday as a Category 2 hurricane, then quickly moved north through Alabama as its wind speeds dropped sharply.
But the possibility of life-threatening storm surges still loomed for parts of the Florida Panhandle, along with heavy rain and potential flooding for much of the region over the weekend and into Monday.
Isaias was about 40 kilometers south-southwest of Montgomery, Ala., and nearly 170 kilometers south of Birmingham, Ala., with maximum sustained winds of 55 km/h, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Saturday.
Forecasters also warned that conditions could stir up tornadoes across parts of the Florida Panhandle and into Georgia and the Carolinas.
Isaias made landfall near Destin, Fla., as the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.
The storm’s rapid intensification was fuelled by record-warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf has seen substantial warming over the past few decades, and experts say the current marine heatwave was made far more likely due to human-caused climate change. 
While the warm waters provided the abundant energy that Isaias needed, its formation was also made possible by favorable atmospheric conditions, including weak upper-level winds that would otherwise have disrupted the burgeoning storm. 
But just before landfall, upper-level wind shear increased, causing the storm to weaken slightly, dropping it back to Category 2 and making it more disorganized, expanding the area hit by damaging winds. 
Hurricane-force winds lashed the Gulf shoreline in the low-lying coastal area known for powdery white-sand beaches dotted with vacation homes, waterfront bars and seafood shacks.