MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Communities in South Alabama and the Florida Panhandle are hunkering down right now. Hurricane Isaias is expected to make landfall in just a few hours near Pensacola, Florida. And that is where we find NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Hey there, Sergio.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Hey.
KELLY: Hey. So how are y'all doing? What are conditions in Pensacola?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You know, Mary Louise, full disclosure, I'm hunkering down in my hotel room. I was planning on doing this live outside, but conditions have quickly deteriorated. It's raining a lot, and the wind has picked up. I think you might be able to hear it.
KELLY: Yeah, I can indeed. Sounds like rain pounding your window.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. So the trees are brushing against the window because of how strong the winds are right now. We are expecting Hurricane Isaias to make landfall in the Pensacola area around 7 p.m. central time. Right now, it is a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. It is expected to weaken, but state officials, including Governor Ron DeSantis, are not taking it for granted.
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RON DESANTIS: There's a lot of prognostications that it's going to weaken before landfall because of the significant wind shear. Let's hope that that's the case, but we are planning to assume that that will not happen and that it will make landfall as a major hurricane.
KELLY: Well, and the governor and other folks I know have been urging people, please take this seriously. I know he said this morning the state is ready. How ready? What has Florida been doing to prepare?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah, the state is worried about the strong winds, of course, and the storm surge. You know, flash floodings are a big concern. That's why the state has ordered the evacuation of certain areas. Governor DeSantis says people should expect power outages and debris to be spread widely. But he says the state has been preparing for this moment. The state has marshaled a thousand generators, millions of gallons of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. It has also staged heavy machinery to remove debris and repair. And the governor says over a million bottles of water and food will be available for people to pick up after the storm has passed.
KELLY: Well, and I imagine it's - most people are I hope home safe and hunkered down, but to the extent you've been able to talk to folks, what are they telling you?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Many of the residents I've talked to say they were not expecting to have to deal with a hurricane this year. Mind you, the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June to November, but Hurricane Isaias is the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season. You know, think about it. It's the first one in October. And we haven't had a hurricane in the U.S. since 2024. I talked to a woman named Tracy Schnick. She works in Pensacola Beach, one of the evacuated zones. Even though the El Niño weather pattern suppresses hurricanes in the Atlantic, she says she thought they might get a hurricane late in the season.
TRACY SCHNICK: I think we all started watching when they started reporting on El Niño, that it was going to be a super El Niño. Then we kind of - everybody's ears perked up that we felt like it's a good chance this year.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: She is also hoping for Hurricane Isaias to weaken as it hits the Florida shore.
KELLY: Oh, it sounds like everybody is hoping that it will weaken. What about beyond the panhandle? What other areas are going to feel the impact of the hurricane?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: So the National Hurricane Center says hurricane force winds are expected to spread as far as 100 miles inland from the coast of Alabama. Parts of the Florida Panhandle could see as much as 15 inches of rain as the storm moves through. There is also a risk of tornadoes developing this afternoon in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle and tomorrow in Georgia and the Carolinas. So Hurricane Isaias will make itself felt and will dump a lot of rain across the southeast for the next few days.
KELLY: NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, with rain and wind beating against his windows there in Pensacola. Thank you.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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