Hurricane Isaias delivered exactly the kind of ocean violence forecasters feared.
Before crashing ashore near Destin, Florida, Friday night, the hurricane whipped the northern Gulf into a chaotic mess of enormous swell, storm surge and whitewater—producing waves approaching and exceeding 30 feet offshore.
See footage of Isaias hitting Florida, linked here, and below.
NOAA reported peak seas up to 37 feet while Isaias was still about 80 nautical miles south of Pensacola. An unmanned Saildrone that passed directly through the Category 3 hurricane earlier Friday measured significant wave heights exceeding 32 feet, while an offshore buoy recorded waves reaching 27.6 feet near the Florida Panhandle.
Footage from Florida shows waves and surge blasting over seawalls and roadways as wind-driven rain turns visibility nearly nonexistent.
Storm chaser Reed Timmer was in Pensacola as conditions deteriorated.
“Definitely extreme wind warnings out here right now,” Timmer said over the roar of the storm. “This is the real deal, folks. The life-threatening storm surge is coming.”
Isaias made landfall near Destin at approximately 8:30 p.m. CDT Friday as a Category 2 hurricane with 105-mph sustained winds. A station near Santa Rosa Sound measured a 116-mph gust, while a NOAA gauge at Panama City Beach recorded water 5.6 feet above mean higher high water.
“Storm surge is the greatest threat to life when we’re talking about a hurricane,” reported ABC News meteorologist Leslie Lopez from Mobile, Alabama. “We know that we’re going to see a 5 to 7-foot storm surge potentially along the entire Gulf Coast… there are 30-foot waves just offshore in the Florida Panhandle.”
The National Weather Service described the threat before landfall as “life threatening storm surge and devastating winds.”
Related: 54-Foot Waves? European Model Shows Monster Seas Around Hurricane Isaias (Video)
By early Saturday, Isaias had rapidly weakened into a post-tropical cyclone over Alabama with 35-mph winds. But the danger isn’t over. NOAA continues to warn of flash flooding as the remnants race inland, while heavy rain and tornadoes remain possible across portions of the Southeast.
More than 726,000 customers in Florida and Alabama were without power early Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Roads flooded in Destin, trees and power lines came down across the region, and some emergency crews temporarily stopped responding because conditions became too dangerous.
For anyone wondering what 30-foot Gulf seas actually look like:
Florida just got the answer.
Stay safe out there.
Related: Watch: 25-Foot Backwash Explodes as Hurricane Rachel Swell Floods Orange County
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