121-year record broken! Half a million people left in the dark

Hurricane Isaias has reached the Gulf Coast of the United States, bringing strong winds and widespread power outages to Florida.

TodayPress TV reports, citing ABC News, that the storm has caused major disruptions across the region.

According to the broadcaster, citing the National Hurricane Center, the Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale made landfall near the city of Destin in western Florida at 8:30 p.m. local time on Friday. Maximum wind speeds reached 169 kilometres per hour.

Strong winds damaged power lines in western Florida and southern Alabama, leaving approximately 500,000 people without electricity.

According to forecasts, sea levels could rise by as much as 2.7 metres in areas stretching from the Alabama-Florida border to the coast of Grayton Beach, Florida.

The National Hurricane Center had previously forecast that Isaias would strengthen to Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale before weakening ahead of reaching the US Gulf Coast. The hurricane had been expected to make landfall on Friday evening or Saturday.

Isaias formed four months after the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, bringing it close to a 121-year record for the latest hurricane formation in the region.

According to the National Weather Service, the previous record was set in 1905, when a hurricane formed on October 8. Isaias formed on October 7.

Giymat Mahir