Hurricane Isaias hits Category 2 with 165 km/h winds, Gulf Coast landfall due Saturday morning PKT

Hurricane Isaias strengthened into a Category 2 storm on Thursday and is heading for the US Gulf Coast, where it is forecast to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday US time, which is Saturday morning in Pakistan, the Associated Press reported via NPR. It is the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season, and forecasters expect it to intensify quickly before it reaches the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and southern Mississippi.

Hurricane Isaias: the numbers

• Wind: maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/h), above the 96 mph threshold for Category 2, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
• Position: about 415 km south of the mouth of the Mississippi River, moving north-east at 22 km/h.
• Hurricane warning: from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to the Bay-Gulf county line in Florida.
• Storm surge warning: from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Suwannee River in Florida, with surge and high tide of 1.5 to 2 metres possible in parts of Alabama and Mississippi.
• Rain: up to 38 cm (15 inches) on coastal areas, with flooding possible inland as far as Tennessee and North Carolina into the weekend, and tornadoes possible overnight Friday from Alabama to the Florida Panhandle and south-western Georgia.

"Today is the day to prepare and get ready and be in your safe place by tomorrow," said Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The National Weather Service warned of possible "long-duration power outages". The storm is expected to weaken quickly once it comes ashore.

Evacuations and emergencies

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey ordered non-residents to leave Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Dauphin Island immediately, and traffic backed up on the highway out of Gulf Shores. The governors of Florida and Alabama declared states of emergency for dozens of counties; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said about 5,000 National Guard troops were expected to be mobilised by Friday. At least four Florida school districts cancelled classes and several counties ordered mandatory evacuations of coastal areas.

A record-late first hurricane

Isaias formed more than four months into the season and came one day short of tying a 121-year-old record for the latest-forming first Atlantic hurricane: in 1905 the season's first hurricane formed on 8 October. The 2026 season had been unusually quiet until now.

If you have family on the Gulf Coast

If you have relatives or friends in the warning area:

• Follow local orders. Evacuation decisions come from county and state officials, not national news.
• Charge phones and agree a check-in time before landfall, since power cuts may last days.
• Time difference: US Central time is 10 hours behind Pakistan, so a Friday-night landfall there falls on Saturday morning here.

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