Isaias moves north into Appalachians and mid-Atlantic; Southern California battered by Rachel

October 12, 2026 3oliver

Isaias moves north into Appalachians and mid-Atlantic; Southern California battered by Rachel

SOPHIE BATES, KATE BRUMBACK and JULIE WALKER

Updated Sun, October 11, 2026 at 12:53 PM UTC

5 min read

APTOPIX California Extreme Weather Rachel — People watch the waves crash along Alamitos Peninsula, brought by Tropical Storm Rachel, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly) (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)

California Extreme Weather Rachel — A woman rests from cleaning up the effects of Tropical Storm Rachel along the Alamitos Peninsula, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly) (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — People in the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama cleaned up after Hurricane Isaias swept through as the storm’s remnants caused flooding in North Carolina on Sunday, while powerful Pacific Ocean waves stirred up by Rachel, a former tropical storm, battered the coast of Southern California.

In western North Carolina, rivers overflowed as heavy rainfall raised the risk of flash and urban flooding, according to the National Weather Service. It said tornadoes were possible in parts of Virginia and North Carolina as well as dangerous surf and rip current conditions along the Gulf and southeastern Atlantic coasts.

At least four deaths were linked to Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, which came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane Friday near Destin, Florida, a Gulf Coast vacation spot filled with high-rises and tourist shops. The storm then roared into Alabama with tropical-force winds before heading farther north.

In Florida’s Escambia County, Sheriff Chip Simmons said a woman was killed when a tree fell on her home and a man died of carbon monoxide fumes from a generator running in his garage.

One person died when a tree fell on a house in Birmingham, said Cory Moon, the city’s fire chief. A second storm-related death in Alabama was attributed to a motor vehicle crash involving a downed tree in Barbour County, said Josh Johnson of the state’s emergency management agency.

Heavy rains cause problems in North Carolina

In Burke County, North Carolina, an unhoused male and female were camping when floodwaters from the Catawba River caught them off guard. They were rescued, along with their dog, according to a spokesperson for the county emergency management agency. Separately, a woman trapped inside her car in floodwaters was freed outside of Morganton.

In McDowell County, North Carolina, just west of Burke County, first responders said they dealt with five landslides and voluntary evacuations overnight Saturday into Sunday as they responded to flooded roads and streams overflowing their banks.

Nearly a dozen local weather stations in the western North Carolina county reported torrential 24-hour rainfall totals from about 5 inches (13 centimeters) to as much as 9.57 inches (24 centimeters) at the fire/rescue station in Enola. The weather service said rainfall was diminishing in the area but that rapid river rises and flooding remained possible.

Dealing with Isaias aftermath in Florida

Hurricane-force winds in the Florida Panhandle blew the roof off a Pensacola hotel. The storm flattened a boathouse in Destin and ripped away part of the facade of a high-rise in Panama City Beach.

At a church in Pensacola where the United Cajun Navy was distributing supplies Sunday morning, a line of hundreds of cars stretched around the block. Yvette Haro said she arrived at 5 a.m. after being turned away the previous day because supplies had run out.

With a 10-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter at home, she said it’s hard to go to stores and wait in long lines. She was looking for water, paper towels, toilet paper and cleaning supplies.

While her home didn’t suffer any damage, the loss of electricity was making things difficult, Haro said. “The biggest thing is our food going bad,” she said.

About 226,000 customers remained without power Sunday evening in the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama, according to poweroutage.com. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expected nearly everyone to have it restored by Tuesday night.

Rachel brings wind and rain to southern California and the Southwest

Rachel became a post-tropical cyclone overnight, bringing unusually big waves to Southern California.

Waves battered a century-old wooden boardwalk on the Long Beach peninsula and forced homeowners to evacuate. The strip of multimillion-dollar oceanfront properties, along with much of the Southern California coastline, was already reeling from Hurricane Marie in September.

“This area is completely shattered and vulnerable,” Jack Gordon, a Long Beach real estate agent, said.

The Pacific Ocean is abnormally warm, about 7 to 8 degrees F warmer than normal for this time of year, due to the El Niño weather pattern, said Joe Sirard of the weather service in Oxnard, California

“When we have this warm water, it actually causes the ocean to rise above the normal predicted tide levels,” Sirard said. That’s affected by Rachel’s ocean swells and wind gusts. The City of Long Beach placed dozens of 3,000-pound (1,360-kilogram) sandbags along the stretch of peninsula where waves tore apart the historic boardwalk and smashed against coastal homes.

Jazmin Evers, a 37-year-old mother who runs a pottery business from her Long Beach rental home, said the community is on edge. “Every time the tide goes down everyone just kind of takes a breath — except, of course, the people whose buildings are being destroyed,” she said. “When the tide comes back up, everybody’s nerves kind of ramp back up.” Rachel dissipated over Las Vegas as it drenched deserts across the Southwest. An inch (2.4 centimeters) of rain fell in the city Sunday, leading to gushing water and flooded streets on the Las Vegas Strip.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Simon was a Category 4 storm as it pounded Mexico’s Pacific coast Sunday, its eye remaining just offshore as its most powerful winds and rain slammed people living between the Sierra Madre and the ocean. ___

Brumback reported from Atlanta. Walker reported from New York. Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Jack Brook in New Orleans and Josh Kelety in Phoenix also contributed.