Hurricane Isaias Prep, Competitive Midterm Races, Trump's Media Ban In Court

Overnight, Tropical Storm Isaias became a hurricane.

Forecasters say it will make landfall as early as tomorrow night near the Alabama Gulf Coast and Florida Panhandle.

Communities are preparing for high winds and flooding.

We reach WBHM's environmental reporter, Laura Linehan, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Good morning, Lauren.

Good morning.

So what are the preparations looking like?

Well, you know, they're used to hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, right? But it's been a pretty quiet hurricane season so far with El Niño in place.

So areas from the Mississippi Gulf Coast all the way to the Florida Panhandle, especially along the coast, have been getting sandbags, boarding up windows, getting supplies from the grocery stores.

The stores have been full with people stocking up on those hurricane supplies.

They know that hurricane plan.

And so for folks who are staying who have not had evacuation orders, they are definitely making those preps right along the coast.

But it's also the inland communities.

I mean, here in Alabama, the National Weather Service in Birmingham is forecasting two to four inches of rain and some stronger winds inland.

So you could see the potential for folks already what they have been doing is, like, securing their lawn furniture outside.

But it's also October, so folks are having to secure their Halloween inflatables and decorations.

But I also spoke with the Birmingham Humane Society, and they've been asking people to donate crates because they are trying to evacuate their shelters ahead of this storm coming in so they have room for animals to come up from the coastal shelters.

Seems like there's a little bit of uncertainty, though, about what the path might be.

So what about events this weekend? What are people planning to do if they have big events planned?

Yeah, you know, down here in the Deep South, a big concern is going to be football.

So we have already seen some high school football games being rescheduled to either earlier in the day on Friday or even tonight.

And then we also have that potential for Saturday.

There is a big SEC football game in Tuscaloosa, the Alabama versus Georgia matchup, and President Trump is actually scheduled to attend.

But he said yesterday that he is playing everything by ear based on what happens with Isaias.

So as of right now, kickoff is still set for Saturday night at 6:30 PM Central Time.