Four people died after Hurricane Isaias made landfall early on Saturday, and about 670,000 residents in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi were still without power as the storm weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, according to local authorities and electricity monitoring services.
Two of the deaths resulted from trees falling on homes, according to local media and authorities.
Authorities in Florida received no search-and-rescue requests shortly after landfall, a sign of limited impact, Gov. Ron DeSantis said. But hazardous conditions remained, and the National Hurricane Center said storm surges, flash flooding, damaging winds, and a risk of tornadoes were expected across parts of the US Southeast.
The tornado threat is expected to continue on Saturday across parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas, the NHC said.
Authorities said power restoration was a priority, while highways, bridges and airports reopened and teams assessed the damage.
"They're going to make assessments this morning, and I think that'll give us a good sense about the future for the rapidity of the power restoration," DeSantis told a press conference in Tallahassee. He said some 16,000 utility linemen had prepared to respond to the storm.
As of midday Saturday, about 420,000 customers in Florida, 190,000 in Alabama, 43,000 in Georgia and 17,000 in Mississippi had no power, according to tracking firm PowerOutage.us.
A separate storm on the Pacific Ocean, Rachel, was moving toward the coast of northern Baja California on Saturday, bringing wind gusts and increased tides, which left another 7,000 people without power in California.
Alabama's emergency management agency said the downed trees and power lines made travel hazardous in Houston County, which is under a flash flood warning.
"Due to the impacts of Hurricane Isaias, all Houston County roads are closed until further notice," it posted on X.
A category 2 hurricane when it hit Florida's coast and the first of the 2026 Atlantic season, Isaias is expected to produce gusty winds well inland before weakening below gale force later on Saturday, the NHC said.
On Saturday, oil and gas producer Shell said it was beginning to redeploy personnel to its Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito and Appomattox assets in the Gulf, while Chevron was advancing efforts to redeploy staff to its platforms and seeking to restore full production. "Remobilization of crews will continue through Sunday," it said.
Despite the progress, about 69% of oil output and 57% of natural gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico remained shut on Saturday, slightly down from Friday numbers, the Marine Minerals Administration said.
Some 113 production platforms, representing 30% of the total, remained evacuated, the agency said.
President Donald Trump, asked about hurricane preparations on Friday, told reporters outside the White House that it was "under control." The U.S. Energy Department said on Saturday it authorized an emergency release of up to 4 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to address hurricane-related supply disruptions.
Florida and Alabama approved emergency declarations to ensure federal resources are available to respond to Isaias, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a post on X.
"There's also a lot of hazards post-storm that people should be careful of, but so far, we've had a lot of assets in place that have not been called on," Florida Gov. DeSantis told Fox News early on Saturday.
In the coastal city of Pensacola, the mayor said drinking water shortages are a problem. The storm damaged Pensacola Airport, Florida's 10th-largest, and it is closed to commercial flights until further notice.