By Andrew Hay
Oct 9 (Reuters) – Residents of coastal towns in Florida and Alabama boarded windows and filled sandbags on Friday as Hurricane Isaias bore down on the US Gulf Coast, bringing with it life-threatening storm surge and 115 mph (185 kph) winds.
Tens of thousands of people in Florida’s Panhandle and Alabama’s Gulf Coast faced mandatory evacuation orders. Local television stations showed roads packed with vehicles heading north, away from the water.
The Category 3 Isaias, the first hurricane of an unusually quiet season for the United States, was expected to make landfall between Mobile, Alabama, and Grayton Beach in the Florida Panhandle on Friday evening, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The 90-mile (145 km) stretch of coast is known for brilliant-white sand beaches, with some areas packed with vacation homes next to small coastal towns like Destin, Florida.
“If you’ve been asked to evacuate, get out now, conditions are only going to deteriorate,” NHC Director Michael Brennan told Fox Weather on Friday. “That surge is going to come in after dark, that’s not a place you are going to want to be in.”
Scientists say human-caused climate change has warmed the Gulf of Mexico, possibly intensifying hurricanes like Isaias.
The storm will pack sustained winds capable of extensive structural damage to beach houses, though modern homes built to strict coastal codes may remain standing. Storm surge of up to 9 feet (2.7 meters) was forecast around the Alabama-Florida border.
President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip to Alabama on Saturday for the Georgia vs. Alabama college football game, as the hurricane is expected to affect Tuscaloosa, the city where the contest was set to be played.
Up to 15 inches (38 cm) of rain was expected in localized areas of the Florida Panhandle and the Big Bend area.
Oil companies have evacuated personnel from 129 oil and gas production platforms, representing 35% of the 371 staffed platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricane-force winds were expected as far as 100 miles inland in southern Alabama, possibly triggering tornadoes. Some 2 to 5 inches (5 to 13 cm) of rain were expected across the US Southeast as far north as the southern Appalachian Mountains and coastal areas of the Carolinas.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; editing by David Gaffen)
