Hurricane Isaias, the first hurricane of this year's Atlantic season, came ashore on the northern Gulf Coast of the United States on Friday night, October 9, near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 storm, CBS News and the Associated Press reported.

The storm hit communities in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama with strong winds and flooding. Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power, and evacuations had been ordered along the coast before landfall.

Isaias grew out of the low-pressure system that forecasters had been watching in the southwestern Gulf since early in the week. It became a tropical depression on October 6, a tropical storm early on October 7 and a hurricane that night. CBS News reported that it briefly reached Category 3 strength, with winds of 120 miles per hour, before landfall.

Within hours of coming ashore, it weakened and lost its tropical characteristics. Forecasters still expect strong winds, flash flooding and storm surge across a large part of the Southeast through the weekend.

The storm did not affect Haiti. No Atlantic hurricane had formed by September 21 this year, the first time in 112 years that the season had gone that long without one. The season runs through November 30.

If you have family in the Florida Panhandle or southern Alabama, phone lines and power may be down for some time. Local emergency management offices and the National Hurricane Center have the latest information.