Florida panhandle

Florida and Alabama National Guard units mobilized in response to a hurricane that left roughly 800,000 residents without power and caused significant flooding across the Florida Panhandle and surrounding region. At the peak of operations, more than 5,000 Guard members were activated, with Florida moving thousands of Soldiers and Airmen within 36 hours of impact to support 16 affected counties.

Guard members completed over 100 rescue missions, including saving a family from a sinking truck near Tallahassee, while clearing about 4,000 miles of roadway and removing more than 12,500 cubic yards of debris. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters assisted with damage assessments and transport to isolated areas. Alabama activated roughly 500 Soldiers who staged in the state's southern region, though the state saw less severe weather than expected. Officials noted the Emergency Management Assistance Compact remains available for additional interstate support, while other military units, including the Air Force Reserve's 403rd Wing and the Army Corps of Engineers, assisted with reconnaissance and flood-risk monitoring.

A Florida appeals court sharply criticized a Tallahassee grand jury's report on the Hope Florida charity, ordering it expunged and finding that jurors improperly accused individuals of criminal conduct while violating confidentiality rules. Gov. Ron DeSantis responded by calling for prosecutions of whoever leaked the report, while Democrats continue pressing for investigations into his administration. The ruling has elevated Hope Florida as a campaign issue ahead of next month's election, with gubernatorial candidates Byron Donalds (R) and David Jolly (D) both campaigning amid Hurricane Isaias recovery efforts that have left thousands without power.

Separately, Florida's attorney general race is drawing national attention after Democratic candidate José Javier Rodríguez received a $5 million injection from a national party group, the largest such donation to a statewide Florida candidate this cycle, aimed at unseating appointed Republican AG James Uthmeier. Uthmeier is also pushing for added restrictions on Meta after rejecting a multi-state settlement. Meanwhile, documents tied to a 2021 "ghost candidate" scandal are resurfacing in Florida Power & Light's merger talks with Dominion Energy.

Florida and California each faced tropical weather at the same time, prompting comparisons between the two states' preparation and response. Florida's Gulf Coast panhandle was hit by Hurricane Isaias, a Category 2 storm, with Gov. Ron DeSantis having spent weeks coordinating federal resources, issuing public safety guidance, and warning against looting ahead of landfall.

Meanwhile, California faced a rare tropical system, downgraded to Tropical Storm Rachel before reportedly regaining strength, headed toward San Diego. Some coastal areas north of San Diego, including flood-prone stretches of Newport Beach, saw coastal flooding even before the storm's peak. Gov. Gavin Newsom's office issued only a brief statement, with critics arguing there was little visible preparation compared to Florida's response.

The California storm was expected to intensify through the weekend. Commentators noted the contrast in gubernatorial communication and emergency planning between the two states, framing it as a test case for differing approaches to disaster readiness as both storms play out.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency for 25 counties ahead of a strengthening storm system in the Gulf of Mexico. The order covers counties across the Panhandle and North Florida, including Baker, Columbia, Bay, Escambia, Leon, Santa Rosa and Walton, among others.

The National Hurricane Center expects the system, now a Category 3 hurricane, to make landfall along the central Gulf Coast as early as Friday night, with impacts extending well beyond the landfall point, including heavy rainfall, strong winds, coastal flooding and isolated tornadoes across North Florida. Some counties are not expected to be seriously impacted directly but are already contending with separate flooding from days of heavy rain, with three to six inches reported in Columbia County; additional rain could further saturate soils and raise flash flooding risk. The state has staged more than 1,000 generators, half a million gallons of gasoline, a million gallons of diesel and over a million bottles of water, mobilized 5,000 National Guard troops, and pre-positioned more than 16,000 linemen for power restoration. DeSantis urged residents to finalize plans and stock supplies for at least 72 hours.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged residents, particularly in the Florida Panhandle, to prepare for strong winds, flooding and power outages as a hurricane intensified in the Gulf of Mexico and tracked toward the state. The storm strengthened into a Category 2 system and is expected to make landfall near the Florida-Alabama border late Friday or early Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center, with forecasters warning it could strengthen further before then.

Speaking from the state's Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, DeSantis said Florida has staged aircraft, rescue teams, fuel and other emergency supplies in the storm's expected path and warned residents to take the threat seriously. The briefing marked the first major storm response for newly appointed Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Jared Perdue, who also heads the state's Transportation Department. He succeeds Kevin Guthrie, who led the division for five years before departing to join a failed Republican gubernatorial primary campaign.