More than 390,000 homes and businesses in Florida and Alabama were still without electricity Sunday morning, two days after Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 hurricane on Friday evening. PowerOutage.us listed about 315,900 customers without power in Florida and about 76,500 in Alabama on Oct. 11.
As outages drag on, the biggest health risks shift from wind and storm surge to what happens in and around homes during recovery. Portable generators, chainsaws, spoiled food and floodwater cause many injuries after a storm passes. Carbon monoxide poisoning is among the most dangerous because the gas cannot be seen or smelled.
