Isaias surged towards the U.S. Gulf Coast on Thursday after strengthening into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, the National Hurricane Center said, prompting mandatory evacuations and school closures in some coastal areas of Florida.
Forecasters warned Isaias could bring damaging hurricane-force winds to parts of the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and southern Mississippi, while also potentially causing a life-threatening storm surge along areas of the northern Gulf Coast. It could also bring heavy rains of 3 to 7 inches (7 to 18 centimeters) across the central Gulf Coast, according to the hurricane center.
