Isaias weakened quickly after making landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 hurricane Friday evening. Its powerful winds left hundreds of thousands of people in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle without power early Saturday. It was the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.
Here's the latest:
That is according to Robbie Berg, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
“All tropical storm surge warnings have been discontinued as of this morning, but there are still high wind warnings for portions of the Southeast,” Berg said. “So even though it has become post-tropical, it still does remain a wind threat, as well as a heavy rainfall threat. We could see some areas of significant flash flooding over the next couple of days.”
Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it barrels toward Mexico’s coast.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Saturday Simon’s maximum sustained winds increased to 150 mph (240 kph). A storm of that strength or greater is considered a major hurricane. Simon could bring as much as 10 to 20 inches (25-50 cm) of rain over parts of southwestern Mexico, with some areas receiving up to 30 inches, the center said.
The bulletin also urged residents to take immediate action to prepare, saying the hurricane will make landfall early Sunday, but tropical storm-strength winds could arrive much sooner.
Simon is expected to bring heavy rainfall to parts of southwestern Mexico, possibly concentrated along Jalisco’s coast and in parts of Michoacan, Colima and Nayarit.
Isaias weakened overnight and was no longer considered a hurricane, but flash flooding threats and the potential for tornadoes persisted Saturday as the storm moved inland across Alabama.
The storm, now considered a post-tropical cyclone, made landfall Friday as a Category 2 hurricane, then quickly moved north through Alabama as its wind speeds dropped sharply to 35 mph (55 kph). But the possibility of life-threatening storm surges still loomed for parts of the Florida Panhandle.
Parts of southern Alabama also were flooded, with officials in Mobile reporting downed trees and power lines. Roads in Houston County, which is in the southeastern corner of the state, were closed because of similar conditions.
More than 911,000 customers in Florida, Alabama and Georgia were without power early Saturday, according to poweroutage.com.
Tim Mowry rode out the storm from his home in Pensacola, Florida. He says the wind was so intense it sounded like a train whistle as it whipped through a crack on his patio door.
He said overall the storm wasn’t as bad as he expected. He had standing water in his backyard and parts of a fence were ripped down. He also lost power but was able to rely on a generator. Mowry said his son, who lives nearby, was unable to drive to Mowry’s house due to downed trees and power lines blocking the roads.
“As far as Pensacola-wise we really got fortunate,” Mowry said.
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said on his Facebook page that the airport “took some damage.” Some power was out downtown, he said, and there were trees and power lines down in some areas.
Meanwhile, strong winds blew the roof off a hotel in the city.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says there were no confirmed reports of fatalities from Isaias and that all state-owned bridges and major thoroughfares in the state are now open.
DeSantis warned that flooding dangers persist, especially in areas far east of the storm where it will continue raining.
“The risk of flooding is still high,” DeSantis said. “Sometimes these things happen a day or two days after the storm goes through. So the flooding story is not over.”
A gas station is damaged by the effects of Isaias on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, in East Milton, Fla. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
A gas station is damaged by the effects of Isaias on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, in East Milton, Fla. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
A gas station sign that was knocked down lies near the roadway in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias in Destin, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
New restrictions have stripped Medicaid coverage from certain legal immigrants, including refugees and victims of human trafficking, as part of broader federal changes to the health insurance program that are expected to force millions off their coverage.
The change effective Oct. 1 cut from Medicaid what is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of people who legally immigrated to the United States, many of whom work and pay taxes, in the latest Trump administration policy to target foreigners.
The move is part of sweeping changes to Medicaid under President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax cut and policy law, with many set to take effect early next year. The Medicaid changes are projected to result in 7.5 million fewer people with health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2025 estimate.
Advocates say that without Medicaid, people will not be able to afford private insurance and will either delay care or end up in emergency rooms, adding pressure to a strained health system. For immigrants, the cuts could be felt more acutely, compounding the effects of other administration efforts to restrict their access to public assistance as part of a broader immigration crackdown.
“This is about telling every immigrant in the United States that they are not welcome here and that they should leave,” said Ben D’Avanzo, a senior strategist at the National Immigration Law Center, which has pursued litigation against the Republican administration over its immigration agenda.
Refugees, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking and domestic violence are among those who have lost coverage. Green-card holders were not impacted.
Lauren Bis, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that “immigrants must be able to support themselves without taking from overburdened benefits programs paid for by hard-working American taxpayers.”
D’Avanzo said many people who have lost coverage will likely only realize when they need medical care. But for some, the change has been felt immediately.
In Tucson, Arizona, María Chacon has been caring for her son Jesus for almost five years since a car accident at 17 left him unable to breathe on his own. He requires a ventilator, a feeding tube and daily medication, and must be turned once every two hours to stop sores from forming. Chacon said he sometimes opens his eyes.
The family is originally from Mexico and entered the U.S. on a T visa, offered to victims of human trafficking, in 2018.
Chacon said Medicaid has helped cover almost $25,000 per month of care for her son, which includes a small stipend for her and her husband as compensation for being long-term caregivers. She said doctors have explained that even if they both worked 24 hours a day, they would not be able to cover the cost of his care.
“Since that day I haven’t been able to sleep. We haven’t been able to eat or anything. We're wondering what we’re going to do?” Chacon said.
Jesus takes medication that Chacon estimates costs $7,000 a month. The supply runs out in mid-October. Without coverage, she does not know how her son is going to survive.
Chacon found out just days before the cuts that she was losing care. She called the state's Medicaid offices to appeal. Although she is in the process of obtaining a green card, Medicaid coverage would only kick in five years after she is approved.
Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a right-leaning think tank that seeks less immigration, said the administration “is trying to nibble around the edges” with the Oct. 1 cuts, finding piecemeal ways to curb immigration into the U.S.
Camarota believes the government should screen legal immigrants for income potential and education, reducing the number who might rely on public benefits once they cross the border.
“You need immigrants who are unlikely to need welfare,” he said, or those with high educational attainment.
The administration recently revived a federal rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits that could include food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers and others.
Chacon believes the cuts to Medicaid coverage are part of the administration’s clampdown on immigrants. She said her son is in no condition to travel.
“I know that’s what he’s doing, but, as my son is, I couldn’t go to Mexico,” Chacon said.
Medicaid, jointly funded by states and the federal government, has become a political focal point during Trump’s second term. The president has pushed to root out what he describes as fraud in the program. In July, the administration deferred over $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, claiming there was suspected fraud; critics argued the move targeted Democratic-led states.
As more people are cut from Medicaid, the federal government is predicted to reduce program spending by $911 billion, according to healthcare research nonprofit KFF.
In Arizona, officials said 29,000 legal immigrants were cut from Medicaid rolls on Oct. 1. In Florida, estimates are closer to 177,000. Overall, more than 281,000 immigrants from nine states and the District of Columbia are estimated to lose Medicaid coverage, according to KFF.
As more states implement various restrictions to coverage, 7.5 million people are expected to lose coverage by 2034, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
Without coverage, people will turn to emergency rooms for care. When people delay seeing a doctor, conditions can worsen and become even more expensive to treat.
“At the end of the day, it does raise the cost for the states because once you get these people in for something that could have been prevented, they could not go to the doctor because they were uninsured; they most likely will end up at a hospital in an emergency room,” said Carmen Feliciano, the vice president of policy and advocacy at UnidosUS, a Latino civil rights organization.
UnidosUS partners with community organizations to help provide medical care, but Feliciano said they already are overwhelmed and would not be able to support the number of people who are going to lose medical coverage in the coming months.
“We are not going to have the capacity to serve all the people who need it,” Feliciano said.
FILE - Pediatrician Irving Phillips examines a 16-month-old boy at a CommuniCARE+OLE clinic, June 26, 2025, in Davis, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
