Climate & Environment

Remnants of Isaias and Rachel Leave Over 440,000 U.S. Customers Without Power

By list.metadata.agency

More than 440,000 homes and businesses from Pennsylvania to Florida are without power as the United States faces a rare double tropical threat. The remnants of Hurricane Isaias, which struck the East Coast as a Category 2 hurricane, moved across Tennessee early Sunday, leaving 441,749 customers without electricity, according to PowerOutage.com. Isaias made landfall Friday night and has killed at least four people, according to Facebook posts by officials in Alabama and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

In the West, the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel are moving across Southern California, raising flood risks from southern Idaho to Mexico’s Baja California, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. More than 9,500 customers in Utah are without power, and a core of heavy rain from Rachel is threatening flooding west of Las Vegas and prompting warnings in Death Valley, said Dan Pydynowski, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. Pydynowski noted that simultaneous tropical activity on both coasts is rare but not unprecedented, citing past examples such as Hurricane Ida in 2021 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

To the south, Hurricane Simon, a Category 4 storm with 150‑mile‑per‑hour winds, is battering the coast of Mexico’s Jalisco and Colima states. The U.S. hurricane center said the storm may make landfall in Jalisco later or travel parallel to the coast. Mexico’s weather service forecasts heavy rain and waves up to nearly 20 feet along the coastline. Eric Blake, a senior hurricane specialist at the U.S. center, warned that catastrophic wind and storm surge impacts are likely along part of the west‑central Mexican coast, and that heavy rainfall from Simon will affect southwestern Mexico through the weekend.