Isaias Leaves Massive Power Outages in Path as Storm Tracks Through U.S. Southeast

Hurricane Isaias made landfall on Friday night as a Category 2 hurricane, causing at least two fatalities in multiple states and causing widespread power outages across the U.S. Southeast.

More than 750,000 customers were impacted by outages in the region on Saturday, according to Poweroutage.us. More than half of that number was located in Florida, with the most impacted counties in the state's Panhandle region, which includes Pensacola.

Escambia County, Florida, which is located on the state line with Alabama, reported 133,000 customers without power on Saturday. Two storm-related fatalities from fallen trees have been reported, one in Escambia County, and another in Alabama.

Major power outages were also recorded in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. The storm, which has now been downgraded to tropical depression status, could cause impacts in the Carolinas and Tennessee as it tracks northeast. Inland flooding is a major concern, and many areas still recovering from Hurricane Helene two years ago are experiencing power outages and could be at risk of flooding from the current storm.

Health Impacts of Isaias and the Widespread Loss of Power

Loss of power can have extensive health impacts, including for people who rely on temperature control for medications and electricity-powered medical devices. Medications such as insulin, critical for diabetes management, often rely on consistent temperatures and can spoil without refrigeration. Without access to medicines to maintain health and manage chronic conditions, people can end up in medical crises and end up in already overburdened emergency rooms.

Direct Relief has invested in resilient power projects throughout the region to create backup power at the facility level to help health organizations maintain consistent power, protecting medicines that would otherwise go to waste, powering electronic health records needed for patient care, and keeping power running for facility infrastructure.

In addition to permanent facility-level solutions, Direct Relief also works with the Footprint Project, which deploys power solutions to disaster-impacted areas to meet immediate and short-term power needs.

Medications Already Staged for Patient Care

Direct Relief pre-positioned medical aid across the region prior to the storm and has emergency medical caches at dozens of clinic locations for patient care if infrastructure is damaged and supply routes are interrupted. These caches contain medical supplies commonly needed post-hurricane, including wound care items, chronic disease treatments for COPD, asthma, heart disease, and diabetes. Two of these caches are located in Pensacola, Florida, and are available to health staff to use for patient needs in the coming days.

Another emergency medical cache is located at PanCare, a health center operating out of Panama City, Florida. More than 45,000 customers were out of power on Saturday morning in Bay County, which contains Panama City, and staff at the health center reported that power was lost on Friday night, but backup power switched on at a majority of clinic sites. "Clinics that are scheduled to be open on Saturdays are now open seeing patients," said Robert Johnson, PanCare CEO, told Direct Relief Saturday.

Direct Relief emergency response staff are in the region and assessing medical needs from the storm this weekend as it continues to track northeast.

The organization is in contact with individual health centers and free and charitable clinics throughout the region, as well as primary care associations in Florida and Georgia, and will continue to respond to medical needs as they become known.