PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — Residents across Florida are now picking up the pieces after Hurricane Isaias left severe damage, heavy winds, and flooding across the Florida Panhandle.
The hurricane made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Friday, packing more than 100 miles per hour winds and devastating Florida and Alabama.
Video showed a roof being ripped from a hotel in Okaloosa County, as well as heavy rain and severe winds in Okaloosa County.
The Rest and Relax Inn in Pensacola suffered a similar fate.
“We had no idea what it was,” said storm survivor Michael Callender. “I mean you could, you can hear it in the walls. It got really loud, really quick.”
Callender shared how he felt safe in the inn as the hurricane passed Friday night, until the roof was came apart.
“Tried to suck the door out, it was scary there for a little while,” said Callender.
David Tuttle and his daughter, Tiffany Little, were staying upstairs at the inn.
“It was really scary because the pillars broke off, and really loud,” said Tuttle.
Originally from Oklahoma, they said they’re used to severe weather, but this was unexpected.
“This was nothing like a tornado,” said Little. “It’s lot more pressure than a tornado… Than a tornado, yeah.”
In Pensacola Beach, locals were left to clean up on Saturday morning after the hurricane caused glass to shatter outside a hotel.
The hotel was a staging area for emergency service workers and firefighters and others from multiple agencies to handle assistance efforts.
One resident shared what he thought about the damage.
“You never know just how bad it’s going to be,” Pensacola Beach resident, Frank Winn, said.
Local business co-owner, Sean Palamarczuk, is scoping out the damage done to his own organization, Angry Tuna Seafood company.
“Definitely takes a toll on you, you know,” said Palamarczuk. “We work so hard to get everything working perfectly, and get everything in good running order, and then just to come and see it all just mangled and shattered is a little bit depressing.”
Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power across the Southeast.
“This is years of recovery,” said Bay County Commissioner Daniel Raffield. “This is, this is a long road to go.”
Fallen trees and powerlines could be seen in the area, blocking streets and crushing obstacles.
“That used to be my driveway,” said Okaloosa County resident, Scott Johnson. “These trees were huge, like 30-feet tall white oaks. They’re all gone now.”
In Gulf Breeze, a gas station was found crushed.
Following the hurricane, Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins shared the impact that the storm left on Florida.
“It hit like a freight train, like a Mike Tyson punch. Really hard, really fast. And as it came to landfall, it became more diffuse, so you saw it slow down and start to curve off to the north and to the right there. And that probably was very good for us overall,” said Collins.
Video from the United Cajun Navy showed damage in Navarre.
In Destin, storm surge flooded an area as it moved across a street.
Now, officials are attempting to assess the damage following the dispersal of Isaias from Florida.
Black Hawk helicopters are being used to conduct aerial search and rescue missions in impacted areas.
In Alabama, one person died after a tree fell on their home. Another died in his garage, a generator being found running inside.
The strong winds put nearly two million people in the state under tornado warnings.
“We did have a significant amount of trees down,” Grant Brown of the City of Gulf Shores, Alabama, said. “We have power outages still.”
The mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, said he’s thankful it wasn’t worse.
“Well, listen, we avoided the worst of the storm and we’re blessed certainly in our city,” said Mayor Steven Reed. “But I just wanna thank all the first responders and all the people who helped us in the days and hours leading up to it, as well as those who helped us manage it.”
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis says there are long days ahead as the cleanup continues.
“I want to thank everybody for a lot of the hard work,” said DeSantis. “We’ve had a lot of people stay for the storm. Right now, clearing those trees, clearing the debris, that mission continues… So we’ll be working with the locals to be able to provide the support that they need.”
While the storm has weakened, the threat of heavy rain and strong winds remain.
“Just, be careful out there,” DeSantis said. “Downed power lines, standing water, any of that, can be very very hazardous. Don’t run any generators inside your home or inside your garage. That has to go outside the structure or it can be very, very hazardous.”
One woman in Pensacola lost her home in a fire the storm’s winds spread.
“It went so fast, I mean it was just unbelieveable,” said the homeower, Tina Buran.
She had been prepared for the storm, ready to use her home as the safe place to be for her, her son, her family friend Richard and his dog, Emma.
“We had 20 gallons water, we had a lot of stuff,” said Buran. “I didn’t even charge my phone up because I’m like, ‘We have a generator!'”
Just after 6 p.m., she saw the power flickering, and heard a popping.
“I went around, started unplugging stuff, and then the next thing I knew, there were flames coming up out of some cabinetry in my den,” Buran said.
As the hurricane came ashore, Buran’s home was burning.
“It was just like a wall of flames where the house was,” said neighbor Walt Senkow. “You see this group of embers come flying across.”
He was worried the flames might jump to other homes, including his, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.
“Because that wind was just blowing so hard and it was very frustrating, because there was little they could do,” said Senow.
Buran’s home was reduced to bricks and a hole that used to be her basement.
She, her son and the dog got out safe. Her friend, Richard, was rescued by a police officer.
Buran says she doesn’t know what comes next, but she will take it day by day.
“I don’t know, the show must go on,” said Buran.
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