Hurricane Idalia made landfall over Florida’s Gulf Coast as a “catastrophic” Category 3 storm Wednesday at 7:45 a.m., leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without power, officials said. It has since been downgraded to a Category 1 storm.
Idalia produced storm surges that reached several feet in some areas and brought damaging winds that howled up to 130 miles per hour at one point, according to the National Hurricane Center. It also caused flooding that has completely encompassed Floridian roadways when it passed the Apalachee Bay and made landfall over Florida’s Big Bend region, where the peninsula merges into the Panhandle.
At least two people have died in vehicle accidents since the storm made landfall, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. In Pasco County, a 40-year-old male lost control of his Ford Ranger and collided into a tree after driving too fast for the weather conditions, while a 59-year-old male died in Alachua County after his Toyota Tacoma plunged into a ditch and crashed into a nearby tree line, officials said.
The storm has been impacting Gainesville, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Dowling Park, Lake City, Cedar Key, Chiefland, Newberry, Cross City, Apalachicola, and Perry. Its impact will also be felt in Orlando, Spring Hill, Bradenton, Bartow, Ocala, Lake Placid, Tampa, Sarasota, and Fort Myers.
By 11 a.m. Wednesday, the storm was a Category 1, with sustained winds of 90 mph, and its impact was being felt in Georgia, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Authorities continue to urge caution as, despite the slight decline, the storm remains dangerous and potentially life-threatening.
Over 270,000 Florida residents and at least 60,000 Georgia residents were without power as of Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.
“As you’d imagine, the counties that have the highest percentage of power outages are the counties that were in the main pathway of the storm,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a midday press conference. “Counties like Dixie Levy, Taylor, Swanee, Madison, Jefferson and Columbia. Utility workers are actively working to restore power in all affected areas, and they started doing that as soon as it was safe to do so.”
Further outages are expected as the storm continues pummeling the state as Idalia continues its northeast path to Georgia, the Carolinas and then the Atlantic Ocean.
“So far right now, the biggest impacted area that we have following up on what the governor said is seems to be in Perry [County] right now,” said Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “We know we have a couple of businesses that have caught on fire, a few that have roofs knocked off of them, maybe potentially one collapse.”
“Madison County is another county that has been impacted. They have a lot of debris on the ground,” he added. “They have about 99% power outages in that particular county.”
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee had called Idalia “an unprecedented event” as it rapidly intensified over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and obtained Category 4 status within 24 hours. It downgraded slightly, officially becoming a high-end Category 3 storm when it made landfall, before downgrading again.
The NWS also said “no one” has witnessed a storm strengthen to such magnitude in such a short time.
DeSantis fully activated the Florida National Guard and its approximately 5,500 soldiers and airmen members for Hurricane Idalia response operations.
The mobilized units will “support humanitarian assistance, route clearance, search and rescue, traffic control, aviation, and security missions throughout the area of operations,” the National Guard said.
“The 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team is conducting immediate response operations with multi-purpose units in western coastal counties. We also have units providing reinforcement throughout central and northeast Florida, as well as providing support to the State Logistics Response Center (SLRC) and County Emergency Operation Centers (EOC),” its statement read.
Aircrews of the Florida Army National Guard’s Company C, 1st Battalion, 111th Aviation Regiment deployed from the Cecil Airport in Jacksonville while soldiers with the Florida Army National Guard’s Company A, 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment came from Leesburg.
DeSantis also said the Florida Department of Transportation had 650 heavy vehicles currently in use and about 30,000 powerline personnel tasked with restoring power.
For the Big Bend region, this is the strongest hurricane in over 150 years.
No major hurricanes – those classified as Category 3 or higher – have made landfall through the Big Bend region since hurricane data was first recorded in 1851. Idalia is now the first.
“Idalia is expected to produce a swath of 4 to 8 inches of rainfall with isolated [totals of] up to 12 inches from the Florida Big Bend through central Georgia and South Carolina, and through eastern North Carolina into Thursday,” the National Hurricane Center said in a Wednesday morning advisory. “These rainfall amounts will lead to areas of flash, urban, and moderate river flooding, with considerable impacts.”
State and local officials are urging caution and have specifically instructed residents to get out of vehicles, which are easily swept away by intense wind gusts and water surging through the streets.
Steady winds also bring water from the Gulf onto Florida’s beaches and roads, drowning out transportation avenues and leaving vehicles stranded.
According to NOAA, water levels in Cedar Key surpassed 10 feet Wednesday morning, breaking the previous record of 5.99 feet. The previous record was set during Hurricane Hermine in September 2016.
Steve Gaskins, a sergeant at the Florida Highway Patrol, told FOX Weather Idalia was “a storm that is causing a lot of issues.”
The “biggest” problem for emergency response crews was the flooding, he said.
Gaskins also urged residents to remain home, but if they have to travel he instructed them not to drive over standing water and to avoid downed powerlines and downed trees.
FOX Weather aired a doorbell camera in Cedar Key that captured a Cadillac sedan, left vacate by its owner, pushed several feet by the storm as surrounding water rose for hours, eclipsing the vehicle’s bumper and tires before water likely washed it away.
State of emergency orders have already been declared in at least 50 continues.
Gainesville, which is home to the University of Florida, is in the storm’s path and the school has canceled classes at this time.
Also, the Tallahassee International Airport and the Tampa International Airport have had their operations impacted.
Hope people stay safe and well and follow the instructions given to be safe
Each County should be commended ~ Every few months each County should be doing a MOCK drill for mass casualties, school shooting, Hurricane/Tropical Storm, Multi-house fires, etc….so it is always rotating and it is stellar. They ask for volunteers all year-long, great for Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts to teach them young. We have quite the crowd that does these in Hernando Cty (Spring Hill). We also have prescribed burns for 9 out of 12 months. They will post all over Social Media when and where they are going to do these things so no one panics when they smell wood burning and therefore we don’t end up like CA or Hawaii with dry, parched ignition material laying about, near power lines, etc. That is why Florida doesn’t have wild fires. Florida PREPARES, the residents are well-prepped and heed the warnings. Pretty sure 90% of Floridians have a “Supply” Box with Food for 2 weeks (canned goods, etc) – Bottles of clean water, First Aid Kits, Batteries & Flashlights, Weather Radio’s, Flares, etc. I can’t think of anyone I know here in FL that doesn’t have a Grab and Go bag and always keep your gas tank above the 3/4 mark – for situations just like this! I keep all of my critical documents in a Ziploc bag in a lock box but when a storm approaches – that ALL goes into the Dishwasher as that would protect those critical documents the longest IF we were to get flooded, and then it would have to permeate the lockbox too. I’m GOP and voted 2x for DeSantis and the one thing positive I’d say about DeSantis is that he is 100x better with Hurricanes than Rick Scott was; but – then again he has the Right people working for him and writing these Policies and each Sheriff’s Office and Disaster Team (almost all HOA has volunteers that work on theirs) work together and do those MOCK incidents for practice! It Takes A Village and Florida truly has some GOOD people here. The Newbies need to get up to speed, check the newspaper and volunteer to participate in the Mock Drills and/or read up from almost ANY Insurance Companies website or from the County Website on what to have on hand to Prepare – year-round!
Let it be said before any libturd climtate change idiots chime in….. THIS HAPPENS EVERY YEAR!!” Nothing has changed !
Thank you!
All the hurricanes combined haven’t done as much damage as hurricane Joe and the Whirlwind Blow Barcock Ohomo