Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday in Florida as a Category 3 storm and unleashed devastation along a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast, submerging homes and vehicles, turning streets into rivers, unmooring small boats and downing power lines before sweeping into Georgia.
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Almost 438,000 customers in Florida and Georgia lost power while rushing water covered streets near the coast. As the eye moved inland, high winds shredded signs, sent sheet metal flying and snapped tall trees.
Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. It made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 a.m. as a high end Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph (205 kph).
As of midday Wednesday, there were no confirmed storm deaths in Florida, although fatal traffic accidents in two counties may end up being storm-related, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference.
At least two people have died as a result of storm conditions, the Florida Highway Patrol confirmed.
The first death took place in Gainesville around 6.00am on Wednesday morning. While driving in ‘extremely rainy conditions,’ a driver veered into a ditch before crashing into the tree line.
Another death took place just south of the Big Bend in Pasco County, where a driver who was ‘traveling too fast for conditions’ collided with a tree after sliding off the roadway.
Trees were knocked down, blocking roads, and more than 310,000 homes were left without power across Florida and Georgia.
The devastation caused by Hurricane Idalia on Florida’s pristine Gulf Coast has flooded coastal communities and killed at least two people.
Idalia made landfall in the Sunshine State around 7.45am on Wednesday. It struck the Big Bend region, a sparsely populated, rural area sometimes known as Florida’s ‘Nature Coast.’
The Big Bend usually does not see direct hits from hurricanes, leading to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Tallahassee to call the storm ‘unprecedented.’
Idalia directly struck the unincorporated area of Keaton Beach, about 22 miles south of the city of Perry and 20 miles north of the coastal town of Steinhatchee. ■
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