As the sun rose on Aug. 30, Gov. Ron DeSantis warned Floridians in the Big Bend Region of the state’s Gulf Coast to expect a 16-foot storm surge as Hurricane Idalia appeared it would charge onto land within the hour.
He lamented that about 100 had ignored evacuation orders to leave Cedar Key, saying those people likely would need to be on the third floor of a building to survive the rising waters. Rescue efforts would begin as soon as the storm had passed, he said.
“Wherever you are, hunker down, and don’t take anything for granted here,” Mr. DeSantis said from the podium. “This is a very, very powerful storm.”
By the end of the day on Aug. 29, 49 of the state’s 67 counties had been placed under mandatory evacuation orders after Hurricane Idalia strengthened into an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 intensity ahead of making landfall.
By 5 a.m. on Aug. 30, Idalia had sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph).
The National Hurricane Center reported that hurricane-force winds were extending 25 miles outside of the storm’s center, and tropical-storm-force winds would reach 175 miles out.
Even while still offshore, Hurricane Idalia delivered intense damage to much of Florida’s eastern Gulf Coast, bringing intense wind, rain, and rising floodwater from the Tampa Bay area and Tarpon Springs, north along what’s known as the Nature Coast. Mr. DeSantis said tornados have been a problem in more inland areas.
“We currently have 54,000 households that are out of power throughout the State of Florida,” he added. “But there have been over 100,000 households that have already been restored through hard work all through the night. And those restoration efforts are ongoing.”
“Any place it’s safe to go, people are there working to get that done as soon as it’s safe to do so, when the winds die down to a sufficient level search-and-rescue efforts will begin.”
A tornado watch was issued until 6 a.m. ET for 3.7 million people in the western peninsula of Florida.
‘Unprecedented Event’
The National Weather Service Tallahassee office said Idalia “has the makings of an unprecedented event for this part of the state.”“To put this system into the historical context, there are NO major hurricanes in the historical dataset going back to 1851 that have tracked into Apalachee Bay. None. Don’t mess around with this one.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, repeatedly warned residents under evacuation orders before Hurricane Idalia made landfall.
Shelters are open across the high-risk counties while more than 300 members of the Florida Highway Patrol are on standby to escort equipment, resources, and response teams in the wake of the hurricane.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has said he is in “constant contact” with Mr. DeSantis ahead of the hurricane touching down, adding that his administration is providing him with “everything he could possibly need.”
Idalia Now Category 4
Florida isn’t the only state at risk.After landfall, Idalia is forecast to turn toward the northeast and east-northeast, moving near or along the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina late today and Thursday.”
“Idalia is likely to still be a hurricane while moving across southern Georgia, and possibly when it reaches the coast of Georgia or southern South Carolina late today,” officials added.
Hurricane Idalia looks set to become the fourth major hurricane to strike Florida over the past seven years, following Irma in 2017, Michael in 2018 and Ian, which peaked at Category 5, last September.
