Isaias moves north into Appalachians and mid-Atlantic; Southern
California battered by Rachel
[October 12, 2026]
By SOPHIE BATES, KATE BRUMBACK and JULIE WALKER
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — People in the Florida Panhandle and southern
Alabama cleaned up after Hurricane Isaias swept through as the storm's
remnants caused flooding in North Carolina on Sunday, while powerful
Pacific Ocean waves stirred up by Rachel, a former tropical storm,
battered the coast of Southern California.
In western North Carolina, rivers overflowed as heavy rainfall raised
the risk of flash and urban flooding, according to the National Weather
Service. It said tornadoes were possible in parts of Virginia and North
Carolina as well as dangerous surf and rip current conditions along the
Gulf and southeastern Atlantic coasts.
At least four deaths were linked to Isaias, the first hurricane of the
Atlantic season, which came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane Friday near
Destin, Florida, a Gulf Coast vacation spot filled with high-rises and
tourist shops. The storm then roared into Alabama with tropical-force
winds before heading farther north.
In Florida’s Escambia County, Sheriff Chip Simmons said a woman was
killed when a tree fell on her home and a man died of carbon monoxide
fumes from a generator running in his garage.
One person died when a tree fell on a house in Birmingham, said Cory
Moon, the city’s fire chief. A second storm-related death in Alabama was
attributed to a motor vehicle crash involving a downed tree in Barbour
County, said Josh Johnson of the state’s emergency management agency.
Heavy rains cause problems in North Carolina
In Burke County, North Carolina, an unhoused male and female were
camping when floodwaters from the Catawba River caught them off guard.
They were rescued, along with their dog, according to a spokesperson for
the county emergency management agency. Separately, a woman trapped
inside her car in floodwaters was freed outside of Morganton.
In McDowell County, North Carolina, just west of Burke County, first
responders said they dealt with five landslides and voluntary
evacuations overnight Saturday into Sunday as they responded to flooded
roads and streams overflowing their banks.
Nearly a dozen local weather stations in the western North Carolina
county reported torrential 24-hour rainfall totals from about 5 inches
(13 centimeters) to as much as 9.57 inches (24 centimeters) at the
fire/rescue station in Enola. The weather service said rainfall was
diminishing in the area but that rapid river rises and flooding remained
possible.
Dealing with Isaias aftermath in Florida
Hurricane-force winds in the Florida Panhandle blew the roof off a
Pensacola hotel. The storm flattened a boathouse in Destin and ripped
away part of the facade of a high-rise in Panama City Beach.
At a church in Pensacola where the United Cajun Navy was distributing
supplies Sunday morning, a line of hundreds of cars stretched around the
block. Yvette Haro said she arrived at 5 a.m. after being turned away
the previous day because supplies had run out.
With a 10-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter at home, she said it's
hard to go to stores and wait in long lines. She was looking for water,
paper towels, toilet paper and cleaning supplies.
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People watch the waves crash along Alamitos Peninsula, brought by
Tropical Storm Rachel, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif.
(AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
While her home didn't suffer any damage, the loss of electricity was
making things difficult, Haro said. “The biggest thing is our food
going bad,” she said.
About 226,000 customers remained without power Sunday evening in the
Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama, according to poweroutage.com.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expected nearly everyone to have
it restored by Tuesday night.
Rachel brings wind and rain to southern California and the
Southwest
Rachel became a post-tropical cyclone overnight, bringing unusually
big waves to Southern California.
Waves battered a century-old wooden boardwalk on the Long Beach
peninsula and forced homeowners to evacuate. The strip of
multimillion-dollar oceanfront properties, along with much of the
Southern California coastline, was already reeling from Hurricane
Marie in September.
“This area is completely shattered and vulnerable,” Jack Gordon, a
Long Beach real estate agent, said.
The Pacific Ocean is abnormally warm, about 7 to 8 degrees F warmer
than normal for this time of year, due to the El Niño weather
pattern, said Joe Sirard of the weather service in Oxnard,
California
“When we have this warm water, it actually causes the ocean to rise
above the normal predicted tide levels,” Sirard said. That's
affected by Rachel's ocean swells and wind gusts. The City of Long
Beach placed dozens of 3,000-pound (1,360-kilogram) sandbags along
the stretch of peninsula where waves tore apart the historic
boardwalk and smashed against coastal homes.
Jazmin Evers, a 37-year-old mother who runs a pottery business from
her Long Beach rental home, said the community is on edge. “Every
time the tide goes down everyone just kind of takes a breath —
except, of course, the people whose buildings are being destroyed,”
she said. “When the tide comes back up, everybody’s nerves kind of
ramp back up.” Rachel dissipated over Las Vegas as it drenched
deserts across the Southwest. An inch (2.4 centimeters) of rain fell
in the city Sunday, leading to gushing water and flooded streets on
the Las Vegas Strip.
In the Pacific, Hurricane Simon was a Category 4 storm as it pounded
Mexico’s Pacific coast Sunday, its eye remaining just offshore as
its most powerful winds and rain slammed people living between the
Sierra Madre and the ocean. ___
Brumback reported from Atlanta. Walker reported from New York. Kathy
McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Jack Brook in New Orleans and
Josh Kelety in Phoenix also contributed.
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