While Isaias, the first hurricane of 2026 Atlantic season, avoided the New Orleans area when it made landfall Friday night, people in the region might still be impacted. It hit Destin in the Florida panhandle.
According to CBS News, the Category 2 storm resulted in four deaths – two in Florida and two in Alabama.
“A lot of people own property in that area,” WWL Radio’s Tommy Tucker in New Orleans, La., said in an interview earlier this week with State Climatologist Jay Grymes.
As of Saturday, the National Weather Service said that “Post Tropical Isaias,” was also expected to bring rainfall across the Eastern states. It was tracking across Alabama and was bringing widespread rainfall from the Mississippi River eastward to the central Appalachians. An NWS X post for the New Orleans area showed mostly sunny and hot conditions are expected in the coming days.
“The heaviest rainfall over the next two days is expected to be across the southern and central Appalachians, particularly on southeast facing terrain where orographic ascent will be enhanced with the potential for 2-4 inch rainfall totals with isolated higher amounts possible that may result in some flooding, along with high winds across the higher ridges,” the NWS said. “A secondary maxima of heavy rain is also expected near coastal North Carolina.”
Isaias isn’t the only storm making headlines. Tropical Storm Rachel is also bringing heavy rain and flash flooding to the southwestern U.S. through Monday.
“Heavy rainfall and flash flooding will also make weather headlines across the western U.S. as the future remnants of what is now Tropical Storm Rachel move inland across the Desert Southwest,” the NWS said. “A Moderate Risk of excessive rainfall is valid from southern California to southern Utah where an enhanced corridor of heavier rainfall is expected to develop.”
