Boarded windows and evacuations as major hurricane nears US Gulf coast

NEW MEXICO: Residents of coastal towns in Florida and Alabama boarded up windows and filled sandbags on Friday as Hurricane Isaias bore down on the US Gulf Coast, bringing life-threatening storm surges and winds of 185 kph.

Tens of thousands of people in Florida's Panhandle and along Alabama's Gulf Coast faced mandatory evacuation orders. Local television stations showed roads packed with vehicles heading north, away from the water.

The Category 3 Isaias, the first hurricane of an unusually quiet season for the United States, was expected to make landfall between Mobile, Alabama, and Grayton Beach in the Florida Panhandle on Friday evening, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

The 145-kilometre stretch of coast is known for its brilliant white sand beaches, with some areas packed with holiday homes next to small coastal towns such as Destin, Florida.

"If you've been asked to evacuate, get out now, conditions are only going to deteriorate," NHC Director Michael Brennan told Fox Weather on Friday. "That surge is going to come in after dark, that's not a place you are going to want to be in."

Scientists say human-caused climate change has warmed the Gulf of Mexico, possibly intensifying hurricanes such as Isaias.

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The storm was expected to bring sustained winds capable of causing extensive structural damage to beach houses, although modern homes built to strict coastal codes might remain standing. Storm surges of up to 2.7m were forecast around the Alabama-Florida border.

President Donald Trump cancelled a planned trip to Alabama on Saturday for the Georgia versus Alabama college football game, as the hurricane was expected to affect Tuscaloosa, the city where the match was due to be played.

Up to 38 cm of rain was expected in localised areas of the Florida Panhandle and the Big Bend area.

Oil companies had evacuated personnel from 129 oil and gas production platforms, representing 35 per cent of the 371 staffed platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane-force winds were expected as far as 100 miles inland in southern Alabama, possibly triggering tornadoes. Between 2 and 5 inches (5 to 13 cm) of rain were expected across the US Southeast, as far north as the southern Appalachian Mountains and coastal areas of the Carolinas.