Weather

The National Hurricane Center says the storm's eye came ashore near Ocean Isle Beach. It's expected to linger in North Carolina, traveling inland before swirling up the Mid-Atlantic coast.

Isaias largely spared Florida over the weekend, but is expected to be a "strong tropical storm" when it reaches the coast of eastern South Carolina or southern North Carolina on Monday night.

Officials have ordered evacuations for nearly 8,000 people in southern California, as the state continues to grapple with a rapidly growing number of COVID-19 cases.

While the storm has weakened from hurricane status, it had sustained winds on Sunday of 65 mph and is expected to inundate much of the East Coast this week with heavy rains and strong winds.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged state residents to remain vigilant and heed warnings from local officials and news outlets as Isaias moves closer to the state.

The hurricane could begin affecting South Florida as early as late Friday night and could increase in strength to a Category 2, DeSantis says. North Carolina and Virginia also declared emergencies.

The two NASA astronauts who flew on the SpaceX craft to the International Space Station in May are scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday. But there's a hurricane forecast for the splashdown vicinity.

The storm is "causing life-threatening flash flooding and high winds over Puerto Rico," the National Weather Service office in San Juan says.