Florida Hurricane Isaias: Fort Walton, 30A, Destin, Navarre, Miramar and Pensacola beaches battered; videos emerge

Videos from Destin, Pensacola Beach, Fort Walton Beach and 30A showed rough seas, flooded roads Hurricane Isaias battered Florida’s Panhandle on Friday as dangerous surf, hurricane-force winds and heavy rain swept across popular beach communities. These include Pensacola Beach, Destin, Fort Walton Beach, Navarre Beach, Miramar Beach and Scenic Highway 30A.Videos from Destin, Pensacola Beach, Fort Walton Beach and 30A showed rough seas, flooded roads (Representative) (Unsplash)Videos shared on social media showed towering waves crashing over beaches, strong winds whipping palm trees and areas flooded by storm surge. Local authorities closed beaches, urged residents to stay indoors and warned against entering the Gulf as conditions rapidly deteriorated.The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Isaias was a Category 3 major hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kmph) during the afternoon as it approached the western Florida Panhandle. By early evening, the eyewall was nearing the coast with winds of 115 mph, prompting an Extreme Wind Warning for parts of the region.Also read: When does Hurricane Isaias make landfall today? Latest updates as Florida faces power outages and extreme wind warningsPensacola, Destin and Fort Walton among hardest-hit coastal communitiesA user on X shared the videos of the beach in Destin and wrote, “The wrath of category 3 major Hurricane Isaias has arrived in Fort Walton Beach to Destin, Florida with winds gusting over 80 mph. Ears popping with wind surges.”Shirin Gupta is a content producer with the Hindustan Times. She covers everything between politics, entertainment and sports at the US desk. Shirin got interested in political journalism during her time as a web editor at her college newspaper NCC News in Syracuse when she first started seeing the effects of national politics in life of her fellow colleagues. Shirin has worked on a wide range of fast-moving and developing stories locally when she was at NCC editing accessible reports for the audience. Her current role requires her to track real-time updates, verify information and present balanced coverage across diverse beats. Covering US politics from an international newsroom perspective has further deepened her understanding of how domestic decisions can have far-reaching global consequences. With a keen interest in international affairs, Shirin continues to build her expertise in geopolitics, policy shifts, and cross-border developments. She aims to learn and evolve her reporting in matters of geopolitics and international issues. Outside the newsroom Shirin writes about books and music for her personal blog. She is an avid consumer of pop culture and reveres literature.Read More