Hurricane Isaias strengthened into a Category 2 storm with roughly 100 mph winds as it churned toward the central Gulf Coast Friday, prompting Alabama's governor to order mandatory evacuations and declare a state of emergency across 40 counties ahead of an expected nightfall landfall.

The National Hurricane Center has a hurricane warning in effect from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to the Bay-Gulf County line in Florida, with Biloxi under a tropical storm warning. Isaias is the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season.

Gov. Kay Ivey ordered mandatory evacuations for non-residents of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, all of Baldwin County south of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and Zone 1 of Mobile County, including Dauphin Island and parts of Bayou La Batre, according to a live CNN tracker. Residents elsewhere along the coast were urged to begin voluntary relocation.

Forecasters disagree on just how strong Isaias could get before landfall — some models show it briefly reaching Category 3 strength — but agree the storm will weaken quickly once it moves inland, turning into a heavy rainmaker across Mississippi and Alabama into Saturday. The Weather Channel is forecasting widespread rainfall of 3 to 7 inches, with isolated totals near 10 inches.

More than a dozen counties across Florida and Alabama have canceled school for the rest of the week, and several colleges have shut down campuses. Amtrak has suspended service through parts of Louisiana and Alabama, and the Biloxi-based Air Force Hurricane Hunter squadron relocated its aircraft to Texas to avoid the storm.

Emergency officials are urging residents in low-lying and coastal areas not to wait for mandatory orders to act, warning that storm surge and flash flooding remain the storm's biggest threats regardless of its exact wind speed at landfall.