Hurricane Isaias is strengthening as it closes on the northern Gulf Coast, where it is expected to make landfall Friday or early Saturday — and where officials, residents and the offshore oil industry are racing to get out of its way.
Hurricane warnings stretch from coastal Mississippi through Alabama to the Florida Panhandle, with tropical-storm and storm-surge warnings reaching into southeastern Louisiana, according to forecasters. They warn storm surge could push 5 to 7 feet above sea level in the hardest-hit areas, with 3 to 7 inches of rain likely and isolated totals near 15 inches. Forecasters expect some weakening from wind shear near landfall, but stress the storm will remain dangerous.
Out at sea, the shutdown is already massive. Federal regulators said Thursday morning that about 1.28 million barrels a day — nearly 63 percent of offshore oil output — had been shut in, up from roughly 511,600 barrels a day on Wednesday, alongside more than 1.1 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas. Personnel have been evacuated from 121 production platforms and five drilling rigs. BP curbed production and removed all staff from its Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms, while Shell, Chevron and Harbour Energy also shut in output and pulled workers.
On shore, Florida ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal areas of Okaloosa County beginning Thursday at noon, urged tourists to leave, and planned to close three airports Thursday evening. The governors of Florida and Alabama have declared states of emergency covering 25 and 40 counties respectively, and officials on Alabama’s Dauphin Island ordered the western end of the barrier island emptied Thursday evening.
Energy analysts estimate as many as 9 million barrels of Gulf production could be lost over the storm’s full passage — a reminder that on this coast, a hurricane is always two emergencies at once: one on land, and one in the fuel supply of an entire country.
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