Up to seven feet of surge, and soaked ground at home, in FOX 35's Isaias briefing
Garrett Wymer and Laurel Blanchard walked through Escambia County's first evacuations and Central Florida's flood risk, and viewers wrote in from the porch, the Panhandle and the road.
FOX 35 Orlando
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 202,054 views a day, 128 times a normal first day on this channel (1,578).
Tropics forecast: Hurricane Isaias, flood warnings
Twelve minutes at the desk, and a storm that kept growing while they talked. "Tropics forecast: Hurricane Isaias, flood warnings" puts anchor Garrett Wymer beside Laurel Blanchard of the FOX 35 Storm Team, and nine hours after it went up it had passed 110,000 views. A regular FOX 35 video of that length usually closes its whole first day with fewer than two thousand.
Blanchard's message was simple: "This hurricane is getting stronger and will most likely make a Category 2 landfall along the Gulf Coast." She showed a faster timeline pointing to a Friday evening landfall near the Florida-Alabama line, warnings stretching inland toward central Alabama, and a chance of tornadoes in the Panhandle. Wymer brought news of the first evacuation orders, for zones A and B in Escambia County, as the state emergency operations center in Tallahassee got ready for a briefing from Gov. Ron DeSantis and emergency management director Jared Perdue.
For Orlando viewers, the sharper point came near the end. Five days of heavy rain have already soaked Central Florida, Blanchard explained, so the ground has little room left for whatever the outer bands bring.
The comment section, which on a regular first day here barely stirs, passed a hundred comments. One viewer wonders whether Central Florida can still call itself in a drought. Someone heading to Panama City Beach on Saturday asks what a surge leaves behind, others are still wrestling with the name, and one household is already planning a hurricane party.
Overnight the station followed up with Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, who told FOX 35 that Isaias had reached Category 2 and could strengthen further.
Published on Trari
Where next?
What viewers say
I don't think Central Florida is in a drought anymore o.0
@niteryder9974See it on YouTubeI can't even pronounce it.
@jimc4839See it on YouTubeWeird name.....why not just call it Izzy......
@promenadeableSee it on YouTube
2 more comments
Getting hurricane party ready here in Valrico 🌀
@JesstickleSee it on YouTubeAbbreviate the name and call it hurricane Isekai. This thing keeps wandering further to the east. I hope the folks left in Mexico Beach have high tailed it out of there.
@nailman60dSee it on YouTube
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- Channel
- FOX 35 Orlando
- Subscribers
- 475,000 ▲ 1,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 1,108,030
- Channel views, pace per day
- 315,192 (on a normal day: 170,258)
- Video published
- October 8, 2026
- Video views so far
- 114,680 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 202,054
The numbers
A weather update that would normally gather a modest crowd ran far past the station's usual first day, and its comment section woke up with it.
💡 Test your knowledge
The Florida State Emergency Operations Center seen in the briefing is in the state capital. Which city is it?
Tallahassee has been Florida's capital since 1824, and the state's emergency operations center is based there.