The Latest: Hurricane Isaias strengthens to a Category 3 ahead of expected landfall

Isaias strengthened into a major hurricane Friday as it headed toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, where final preparations were underway for potentially life-threatening storm surges and high winds.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Simon was headed toward Mexico’s Pacific coast and forecast to strengthen significantly. U.S. forecasters issued a hurricane warning for parts of the central and southwest coast, where hurricane-force winds were expected within 36 hours.

Tropical storm activity has been above average this season in the Pacific because of a strong El Niño, a natural, temporary warming of parts of the Pacific that warps weather worldwide. In the Atlantic, El Niño’s decapitating winds and the Gulf of Mexico’s toasty, storm-fueling waters are battling over Isaias’s future strength.

Here's the latest:

The super El Niño has been a nonstop machine cranking out tropical storms that have seemingly rolled through the Pacific region like rush-hour traffic. Now, it’s the U.S. Gulf Coast’s turn.

Isaias is the ninth named storm of the season. None of the previous ones reached hurricane strength. A normal hurricane season has 14 named storms, seven becoming hurricanes and three reaching major hurricane level, which is more than 110 mph (177 kph).

“The season has been completely dead — and we’re still going to have an impactful storm hitting the northern Gulf,” Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach said Wednesday. “How impactful it is remains to be seen.”

El Niño involves a natural, temporary warming of parts of the equatorial Pacific, setting off a chain of unusual weather around much of the world. While it’s one of many factors in play in the formation of Isaias, the current El Niño “still is certainly driving the bus,” Klotzbach said.

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Teams from Tennessee, Texas, Indiana and Florida have staged near predicted impact areas, according to a briefing email from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and statements from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department.

Florida Task Force 1 is staged in Tallahassee with 88 members, four canine teams and high-water rescue equipment. The team responded last June to the earthquakes in Venezuela.

The U.S. has a network of 28 elite urban search and rescue teams trained in water rescue, emergency medical care, structural evaluations and more.

When hurricanes tear through Southeastern towns, the hot meals and bold yellow signs of the local Waffle House provide another kind of comfort.

If a Waffle House stays open in town, even in a limited capacity, neighbors are reassured that the coming storm is unlikely to cause devastation. A closed location of the dependable diner chain has come to indicate impending disaster. The metric is known as the Waffle House Index.

What might sound like silly logic has become one of the most reliable ways for Southerners — and even federal officials — to gauge a storm’s severity and identify communities most in need of immediate aid.

The restaurant chain’s reputation for remaining open when people desperately needed a place to warm up, charge devices and grab a hot meal became a fairly reliable — albeit amusing — resource to help track recovery efforts. The company even operates its own storm center.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday requested an emergency declaration which, if approved by President Donald Trump, would authorize federal support for the state’s emergency protective measures.

Be wary of hurricanes that start with the letter “I.”

The ninth letter of the alphabet leads all others in the number of named Atlantic storms that have been retired over the decades due to their destruction or high death tolls. The names may be out of circulation, but storms including Ian, Ida, Igor, Ike, Inez, Ingrid, Iota, Irene, Irma, Isabel and Ivan left lasting legacies.

Next up is Isaias, which became the first hurricane of the Atlantic season Wednesday night. Whether it lives up to the misery of others whose first letter it shares remains to be seen. The latest forecast suggested Isaias could be less dramatic, but still “extremely dangerous.”

“It’s the ‘I’ storm, which usually we have a lot earlier in the year,” said Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany. “It’s always the ‘I’ storms that seem to cause problems.”

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency urged Gulf Coast residents on Thursday to prepare for the hurricane and said that its offices were “fully engaged.”

FEMA staff were embedded in state emergency operations centers and incident management teams deployed to Alabama and Florida. The agency prepositioned emergency supplies at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, and has activated multiple national urban search and rescue teams “for potential movement if needed.”

Disaster response is led by local and state jurisdictions, with FEMA in a supporting role to coordinate federal support as needed and requested.

A supersized El Niño’s decapitating winds and the Gulf of Mexico’s toasty, storm-fueling waters are battling over the future strength of Hurricane Isaias. And the storm’s tilt and eye show who’s winning.

For now, it’s the waters charged by climate change.

All Atlantic hurricane season, there has been “this battle between shear and just the overall conducive conditions,” said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

El Niño — the natural temporary warming of parts of the Pacific that warps weather worldwide — dominated. Its wind patterns smothered almost any wisp of a storm from strengthening in the Atlantic, while boosting what will soon be record-high levels in the Pacific, Klotzbach said.

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At a Friday morning news conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned of significant storm surge and likely wind damage.

“But the surge is really what puts a lot of people’s lives in jeopardy if they haven’t heeded evacuation orders, and does the most significant damage from these storms,” he said. “Everywhere from Pensacola all the way into the Big Bend section of north Florida, you could see storm surge. So please take caution of that.”

He added, “And we always say you hide from the wind, but you run from the water. When the water’s rising and things are happening, it’s a very, very difficult conundrum — and you do not want to be caught in that.”

Some areas, including several counties in the Florida Panhandle, are under mandatory evacuation orders. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has told tourists and visitors in the state’s coastal areas to leave immediately.

There are three shelters opening Friday morning at schools in Mobile County, Alabama. At least four churches in Dothan, Alabama, are being offered as shelters Friday, and they’re even providing snacks and drinks. The Red Cross has opened overnight shelters in the Florida panhandle, including one at Northwest Florida State College’s arena.

Isaias is forecast to make landfall late Friday.

Isaias strengthened Friday into a major hurricane as it headed toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, where final preparations were being made for potentially life-threatening storm surges and high winds.

The hurricane is forecast to make landfall late Friday somewhere along the Alabama-Florida line and create dangerous conditions in the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and southern Mississippi, the National Hurricane Center said. Rain began falling along the coast Friday morning, and tropical storm conditions were expected to begin early in the afternoon.

The Category 3 storm was packing 120 mph (193 kph) winds and was expected to continue strengthening. Category 3 storms, considered major hurricanes, are capable of causing devastating damage, the center said.

Isaias was expected to weaken quickly as it hits shore and be downgraded to a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon as it moves north and inland along the Alabama-Mississippi line, the center said.

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Jim McKenzie looks out over an empty beach as the effects of Isaias keep beachgoers away on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, on Mon Louis Island, Ala.(AP Photo/Octavio Jones)

High waves generated by the effects of Isaias crash onto the empty beach on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)

A home is boarded up with plywood ahead of Hurricane Isaias’ expected landfall along the Gulf Coast in Dauphin Island, Alabama, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)

Daniel and Brand Harp, of Lebanon Tenn., here on vacation, pack their belongings to evacuate in the morning as Hurricane Isaias approaches Pensacola Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Mexican fishermen inspect their boats as Hurricane Isaias passes through the Gulf of Mexico, north of Progreso, Yucatan state, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

High waves generated by the effects of Isaias crash onto the beach on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)

This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Isaias in the Gulf of Mexico, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)

Saudi Arabia's aviation authorities said Friday that attacks targeting the international airport in Riyadh and an aircraft there the previous day killed three Saudi citizens.

A U.N. human rights chief who chaired an investigation that determined Israel had committed genocide in Gaza won the Nobel Peace Prize, and residents of Yemen's capital reported explosions.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Friday. Read our full coverage here.

The attack on an airport in the Saudi capital and an aircraft there killed three Saudi nationals and injured other people on Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said.

Friday's statement from the authority did not identify those responsible for the attack, though Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen have claimed they targeted the airport with a ballistic missile.

According to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation, the two strikes targeted the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and a Saudia Airlines aircraft.

Several people were injured, some seriously, and were transferred to a hospital for treatment, said the authority, adding that the attacks also caused material damage. It did not specify the types of weapons used or those responsible.

The authority said it was coordinating with security agencies to assess the damage and take measures to ensure the safety of passengers and workers.

FlyDubai announced it was canceling flights to the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Yanbu through Saturday and Abha through Sunday. Pakistan International Airlines also suspended flights to Riyadh.

In Sanaa, the rebel-held capital of Yemen, residents heard heavy explosions overnight and into Friday as intense fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces resumed.

In the downtown area, witnesses said they heard explosions, but their origin wasn’t clear.

The strikes were so powerful that the house shook and it felt as if the entire structure was collapsing, one Sanaa resident told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity in fear of reprisals.

Anees al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said on X that two of the overnight strikes on Sanaa injured six people, including a child.

The Houthis' military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed Thursday that airstrikes launched from bases in Saudi Arabia targeted multiple rebel-held areas for 24 hours, including in Sanaa and the provinces of Marib, Taiz, Hajjah, Saada, Lahj, Ibb and al-Baydaa.

He did not provide any evidence for the claim and the AP couldn’t independently verify Saree’s claims.

— By Fatma Khaled

The South African-born jurist and former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay, who is currently an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her efforts to promote peace and international law.

Pillay chaired the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, which was created by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council. The commission a year ago concluded Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza, with a specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry slammed the award and said on X: “If there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels, Navi Pillay wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner.”

A vessel was struck by an “unknown projectile” off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, the British military said on Friday, causing a fire that it said had since been extinguished.

The attack took place 13 nautical miles west of Al-Jazeera in the UAE, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, which did not identify the vessel. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, and the status of the crew was not immediately known.

Separately, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed without providing evidence on Friday it had struck a large liquefied petroleum gas carrier attempting to use an illegal shipping route south of the Strait of Hormuz.

The British military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Iran’s claim.

Speaking Friday at a regional summit in Turkmenistan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called for deeper regional cooperation and said countries should strengthen their resilience against war, crises and external pressure while avoiding competition aimed at excluding one another.

Regional states should build networks for producing, transmitting and exchanging oil, gas, electricity and renewable energy rather than seeking to eliminate competitors from energy markets, he said.

“Our region, more than ever, needs resilience against war, crises, external pressure and disruptions to economic and communication routes,” Pezeshkian said. “Success in this path, more than anything else, requires linking the region’s capacities together.”

This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

Murid Akhziq, 43, lights a fire for cooking inside his home, which was destroyed during the Israel-Hamas war, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed in Israeli military strikes during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)