
The Florida Highway Patrol released details about the two deaths that happened as the storm approached landfall. MAP: Power outages across Florida caused by Hurricane Idalia NOAANOAA’s tide gauge at Cedar Key shows storm surge starting at around 3:30 in the morning, and peaking at 8:30 in the morning, coinciding with low tide. I think a lot of people really heeded the warnings.” We have not seen that in the same way on this storm. “The feeling of dread that those calls represented, you knew there were going to be a lot of problems. “With Hurricane Ian, within an hour after it hitting, there were frantic phone calls to 911 locally there, of people that were literally drowning in their house,” DeSantis said. Several hours after landfall, Idalia did not seem to be as deadly as last year’s Hurricane Ian, which hit the Fort Myers area and left 149 dead in the state. Storm surge from #HurricaneIdalia reversed the Steinhatchee River, tore sailboats from their moorings and they lost their masts against the bridge. “We have propane tanks blowing up all over the island.”įarther south, in more populated areas hit by storm surge, county officials in Citrus County said they used airboats and large trucks to rescue about 60 people. A National Ocean Service tide gauge there showed a surge nearly 9 feet higher than the predicted tidal level. “We have multiple trees down, debris in the roads, do not come,” posted the fire and rescue department in Cedar Key. He said there were reports of looting there, and that the town got “an awful lot of water,” but there were no reports, as of yet, of any fatalities.Ĭedar Key was on the “dirty” right hand side of the storm, where impacts tend to be more severe. A few that had roofs knocked off of them, potentially one collapse.”Īfter that news conference, DeSantis and others apparently attempted to head to the nearby town of Steinhatchee, on the coast, but the roads were impassable. “Right now, we know we have a couple businesses that have caught on fire. ‘The biggest impact area’: This small Florida town was hit hard by Hurricane IdaliaĪs of Wednesday afternoon, DeSantis said that 262,000 homes had had electricity restored, and another 250,000 were without power along the path of the storm.Īt a news conference, Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said that the most punishing impact so far has been in the town of Perry. WATCH: Hurricane Idalia live webcams from Florida’s west coast Related Articles Idalia had remained a hurricane as it crossed into Georgia, with top winds of 90 mph at 11 a.m., after drenching Florida mostly to the east of Tallahassee.

Idalia also spawned a tornado that touched down briefly in the Charleston suburb of Goose Creek, the National Weather Service said. Late Wednesday, North Myrtle Beach, Garden City, Charleston and Edisto Island all reported ocean water topping sand dunes or walls and into beachfront streets. The tide continued to rise in Charleston harbor. coast through Wednesday night and in North Carolina on Thursday, when Idalia still will likely be at tropical-storm strength. Storm surge was still expected along the southeastern U.S. Idalia was expected to head near or along South Carolina’s coast overnight and be offshore of North Carolina on Thursday before making its way east into the western Atlantic throughout the weekend. Parts of North Carolina were under a tropical storm warning and a storm surge watch.
