WATCH: Tracking the path of Hurricane Isaias

(ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Residents along the U.S. Gulf Coast boarded up windows and picked up last-minute supplies on Friday as Isaias strengthened into a major hurricane and carved a path toward the Alabama-Florida line.

The Category 3 hurricane — the first of an unusually quiet Atlantic season — is expected to make landfall Friday night and bring significant storm surge, damaging winds, flooding and possibly even tornadoes.

Isaias is expected to make landfall between Mobile Bay on the Alabama coast and the city of Destin in the Florida Panhandle — a region known for powdery white sand beaches dotted with vacation homes, waterfront bars and seafood shacks.

Anne Petzold, who lives with her husband in the panhandle beach community of Gulf Breeze, said Friday that they and all of their neighbors plan to ride out the storm. The couple put up hurricane shutters, put away anything in their yard that could turn into a projectile, stocked up on food and water, and have two generators ready if they lose power.

“Everybody does what they can do, everybody asks if they need help — they ask for help, they offer help. All good,” she said. “It’s just another adventure.”

Dangerous conditions are expected throughout the western panhandle, southern Alabama and southern Mississippi, the National Hurricane Center said. Rain began falling along the coast Friday morning, and tropical storm conditions were expected by early afternoon.