Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday that two storm-related deaths have been confirmed and more than 430,000 accounts remain without power in Northwest Florida after Hurricane Isaias made landfall in Okaloosa County.

• DeSantis spoke Saturday afternoon at The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island alongside state and local officials. He said structures handled the storm well, but downed trees have caused damage and slowed the recovery.

“The problem is that the storm knocked over a lot of trees, and so your house, the roof probably didn’t blow off on this, but if the tree fell on your house then obviously that’s a very difficult situation,” DeSantis said.

Isaias made landfall Friday night in the Panhandle as a Category 2 storm, according to Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Jared Perdue.

Two deaths confirmed

DeSantis said one person in Escambia County was killed when a tree fell on his home. A second person died inside his garage, and a generator was running when he was found, the Governor said.

“Don’t run any generators inside your home or inside your garage,” DeSantis said. “That has to go outside the structure. Otherwise, it can be very hazardous.”

Power outages

More than 430,000 accounts are without power, DeSantis said. Of those, 325,000 are Florida Power & Light customers and the rest are with co-ops, he said.

DeSantis said crews have been out since daylight, and debris has to be cleared before linemen can reconnect lines. He said the state has not received any report of a complete breakdown that would require rebuilding a substation.

• “What I’ve seen so far is just there’s just a lot of trees that interfered, so you just have to get those trees out,” DeSantis said.

Perdue said more than 16,000 linemen were mobilized. A lot of the debris on some roads is wrapped in power lines, and the Florida Department of Transportation and utility companies will work together Saturday and Sunday to clear it, he said.

Roads, signals and airports

The Florida Department of Transportation cleared Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 98 before the sun came up Saturday, according to Perdue. Crews are still working on several north-south roads.

DeSantis gave these figures on the state response:

• 180 missions completed by the Division of Emergency Management
• 67 missions by the Florida Highway Patrol clearing downed trees and other debris
• 85 traffic signals back up on generator power

DeSantis said Northwest Florida International Airport in the Panama City area had reopened to commercial service, while Destin-Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola remained closed to commercial service as of the press conference. Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport is now open.

River flooding still expected

DeSantis said there was not much demand for search and rescue, and that the Okaloosa County Sheriff told him there were not many 911 calls. The state is keeping resources on standby because rivers are expected to crest in the next couple of days.

“I’ve been through these storms long enough to know that you see it hit, you kind of see where it entered, and that it ends up leaving the state, and then you think, ‘OK, you know what the damage is,’ and then two days later, all of a sudden people have two feet of water in their neighborhood,” DeSantis said.

Perdue said several rivers are still rising, including the Shoal River in Okaloosa County, which is not expected to crest for another couple of days.

“If there’s standing water or flowing water on top of a road, please do not drive through it,” Perdue said. “It does not have to be that deep, and it can wash away your car, it can wash away a human.”

Stores reopening

DeSantis said businesses across the impacted areas are reopening and gave this status:

• Home Depot, Lowe’s, Publix and Ready Ice: All locations reported open, along with ALDI locations in Pensacola.
• Winn-Dixie: All locations reopened except three stores in Pace, Miramar and Lynn Haven.
• Wawa: Open and providing fuel and convenience items, except for the Niceville location.
• Walmart: 10 locations open across the Panhandle, including Fort Walton Beach, Crestview, Destin, Niceville and Navarre. The status of locations in Pensacola and Santa Rosa Beach is pending.

DeSantis said he also personally checked on one more while walking around the area.

“I can say right here, the Waffle House is back open, and normally if these other ones are open, Waffle House is probably open as well,” DeSantis said.

Business owners can self-report physical and economic damage through the state’s Business Damage Assessment Survey at floridadisaster.biz, DeSantis said.

Price gouging and contractor fraud

Attorney General James Uthmeier said there have been a handful of reported cases of price gouging. Reports can be made at myfloridalegal.com.

“If you’re a business out there, don’t do this,” Uthmeier said. “There are significant penalties, $1,000 per violation, up to $25,000 a day. We’ve prosecuted it before. We’ll do it again.”

Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said his office’s criminal investigations division is deploying three disaster fraud action strike teams to some of the hardest-hit areas. The teams are looking for unlicensed contractors and unlicensed roofers.

• “If somebody comes, knocks on your door, make sure that they are who they are, get their credentials,” Ingoglia said. “And please do not sign any contracts, whether with a contractor or with an adjuster, until you’ve verified who they are.”

Ingoglia said his office is looking at setting up one or two insurance hubs in the impacted areas within the next 48 hours, where people can meet their insurance carriers at one location to file claims. He advised residents to keep a record of conversations with insurers and adjusters and to take photos of the inside and outside of their homes, including before and after any repairs.

Local officials

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden asked residents for patience as cut crews and utility crews work.

“Given the significant strength of this storm, I consider ourselves lucky,” Aden said. “I’ve been through a lot of these things, being born and raised here, and seen worse ones. And based on what we were seeing last night at about 9:00, I thought the very worst.”

Aden said the county was fortunate on life safety.

Okaloosa County Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel thanked the Governor and his team and recognized Okaloosa Public Safety Director Patrick Maddox.

“The power saws started going before the rain stopped,” Ketchel said. “That’s the kind of neighborhood we live in. Everybody helps everybody.”

Okaloosa County Chairman Trey Goodwin credited first responders, public safety, public works, water and sewer and utility workers. He said most residents took preparedness seriously.

• “Still a very bad storm. We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Goodwin said. “But we are very blessed in Okaloosa County. It could’ve been a lot worse.”

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Larry Keefe, who was raised in Okaloosa County, said that his wife was in Shalimar when the storm hit. He said his agency is coordinating the state, local and federal law enforcement response.

“If you are a predator criminal, and you want to take advantage of this situation and you want to manipulate it for your benefit, you’ve picked the wrong place in the state of Florida, and you’ve picked particularly the wrong place in Okaloosa County,” Keefe said.

What comes next

DeSantis said the state expects more reports from Florida Power & Light and other utilities as the day goes on, and that he will visit other communities Saturday and Sunday for more briefings on power and search and rescue needs.

He said the damage stretches from the Alabama-Florida line into the far eastern parts of the Florida Panhandle.

“I feel like there’s damage. I feel like that’s going to be difficult, obviously, for people whose property was damaged, but I also feel like this is very surmountable for us if we all just work together and get the job done,” DeSantis said.