Ron DeSantis Hurricane Update: Isaias Could Make Landfall as ‘Major’ Hurricane East of Pensacola

Hurricane Isaias could make landfall later Friday evening with “major” storm status east of Pensacola, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Friday afternoon update.

DeSantis said that there are still predictions that the storm could weaken before making landfall, but at the time of the press conference, it still stood as a Category 3 major hurricane with maximum sustained winds up to 120 mph.

“We’ve said from the beginning we are going to assume that it’s going to make landfall as a major hurricane. And while there’s still some people that think it might weaken, it very well may, in fact, make landfall as a major hurricane,” DeSantis said, warning that this is a “major event”

“But folks who are in the path of this storm know that this is not just going to be a random tropical system. It’s going to be a strong hurricane, and it’s going to potentially do a lot of damage,” he continued, noting that the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has moved the track east of Pensacola. DeSantis said:

If you look at the most recent track from the National Hurricane Center, they have shifted the expected landfall east of Escambia County – higher and higher probabilities that it’s going to make landfall tonight at about 11 p.m. somewhere in the Santa Rosa [and] Okaloosa County area, maybe somewhere kind of right on that border, it could shift a little, but it’s getting close enough to where there’s more and more confidence as this is going.

“If it does shift to the east of Pensacola, it’s possible that the water in the bay there is actually pushed out, so you could actually have negative storm surge if you’re on that that weaker side of the storm,” DeSantis added.

WATCH:

NHC said in a 2:00 p.m. ET advisory that tropical storm conditions are beginning along the northern gulf coast with a storm surge warning in effect for the Mouth of the Mississippi River to the Suwannee River:

At 100 PM CDT (1800 UTC), the center of Hurricane Isaias was located near latitude 28.4 North, longitude 87.2 West. Isaias is moving toward the north-northeast near 16 mph (26 km/h). This motion is expected to continue through this evening, followed by a northward motion on Saturday. On the forecast track, Isaias is expected to
approach the U.S. northern Gulf Coast this afternoon and make landfall within the warning area this evening.

Data from NOAA and Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds remain near 120 mph (195 km/h) with higher gusts. Isaias is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Fluctuations in intensity are possible through this afternoon, but Isaias is expected to be at or near major hurricane strength when it makes landfall this evening. Weakening is expected beginning tonight after Isaias makes landfall, and the storm is likely to become post-tropical by late Saturday.

It ads that “hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles (55 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 205 miles (335 km).”