Hurricane Isaias knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Florida and Alabama before moving north as a post-tropical storm. As of Saturday afternoon, about 685,000 customers were still without electricity, down 22% from earlier that morning. The storm also forced Gulf of Mexico oil producers to evacuate platforms and cut output. The storm killed at least four people, including two killed by falling trees and one man who died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator indoors. Widespread rain of up to 15 inches is expected across the Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic, with a level two severe storm risk for 12.6 million people. For anyone tracking energy resilience, the story highlights two things: the grid is still vulnerable to extreme weather, and fossil fuel production is concentrated in a hurricane-prone region. The cleanup and recovery will take days, but the pattern repeats every season.
