Hurricane Isaias updates: at least four people dead and hundreds of thousands without power – as it happened

At least four people have died from Hurricane Isaias. In Florida, one person was killed after a tree fell on their home. Another individual was found dead in their garage with the generator on. In Alabama, two people are dead, according to the state’s governor, Kay Ivey. After beginning as a category 2 hurricane, Isaias weakened to a post-tropical cyclone early on Saturday after it made landfall in Florida and lashed the US Gulf coast with heavy rain and fierce winds.

Customers are slowly getting power back as the total number of power outages across the US has trended down after hitting a peak of more than 850,000 earlier in the day. As of Saturday evening, it is hovering at about 630,000, according to poweroutage.com. Donald Trump has allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to provide resources to Georgia to help grapple with the ongoing storm, including possible tornadoes, the agency said on Saturday. Trump previously approved emergency declarations for Florida and Alabama ahead of the storm’s landfall. The US ⁠Department of Energy said it ⁠authorized ⁠an ​emergency exchange of up to ⁠4m barrels of crude oil from ⁠the strategic petroleum reserve to address ‌supply ‌disruptions due to Hurricane ‌Isaias. Tornadoes remain a possibility across the impacted southern states. As the system shifts northeast, an additional 1-3in of rain is expected, with localized rainfall totals exceeding 5in in areas hit by training storms. Wind gusts up to 60mph threaten to cause further widespread power outages, down trees and disrupt travel through the remainder of the weekend. Read More...