By Maria Alejandra Cardona and Marco Bello, Reuters
A store owner in Tarpon Springs, Florida, uses a pump to try to keep water out of his building after Hurricane Idalia passed offshore Photo: AFP / Getty Images
Hurricane Idalia ploughed through the Big Bend region of Florida, where millions of residents had evacuated or hunkered down in anticipation of a dangerous surge of tidal water, but the storm's power ebbed as it headed into Georgia.
Drawing strength from the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters, Idalia unleashed destructive winds and torrential downpours that were forecast to cause coastal flooding up to 5m deep along the state's Gulf Coast a day after passing west of Cuba, damaging homes and causing power outages and flooding.
By early Wednesday afternoon, the eye of Idalia had left Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said in a press conference. He added that parts of the state, particularly in the north, were still being buffeted by storm bands.
Florida's Gulf Coast, southeastern Georgia and eastern parts of North and South Carolina could face 10-20cm of rain through Thursday, with isolated areas seeing as much as a foot of rain, the hurricane center warned.
Georgia authorities were monitoring the system as it entered the state. "We're kind of in that wait-and-hold pattern," state Emergency Management Agency Director James C. Stallings said at a briefing on Wednesday.
"Hopefully, it's out of the state by 8pm this evening, maybe 10 o'clock, and then that we can begin to assess for those that were hit first."
Cedric King, a businessman from coastal Brunswick, Georgia, just south of Savannah, was not going to take chances.
"I packed up the family and headed north," he said, arriving in Atlanta about 2am on Wednesday after a five-hour drive with his mother, wife and children. "We evacuated."
The storm's most dangerous feature is a powerful surge of wind-driven surf that is expected to flood low-lying areas along the coast, officials said.
Surge warnings were posted for hundreds of miles of shoreline, from Sarasota to the western end of Apalachicola Bay. In some areas, the surge could rise as high as 16 feet (5m), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Earlier on Wednesday, DeSantis warned that the chances of surviving a storm surge that approached 16 feet were "not great," and that "you would need to be in a three-story building because it is going to rise very, very high."
Five hours after landfall, only scattered reports of flooding available. At a midday briefing, DeSantis said Florida was making assessments.
The flooded Steinhatchee marina in Florida. Photo: AFP
By midmorning, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration monitoring station in Steinhatchee, 32km south of Keaton Beach where the storm came ashore, showed waters reaching 8 feet (2.4m), well above the 6-foot flood stage. Stations in the more densely populated Tampa area showed "minor flooding" at 10am.
In Hillsborough County, an area of 1.5 million people south of the Big Bend region that includes Tampa, crews were dealing with widespread damage and flooded streets, officials said in a news briefing.
"Folks, this storm is not over. If you are in a safe location, please remain there," said Emergency Management Director Timothy Dudley, noting that local waterways would crest at high tide at 2:30pm.
Overnight, Idalia attained "an extremely dangerous Category 4 intensity" on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale, but by 7am the storm weakened slightly into Category 3 with maximum sustained winds of 201km/h, the NHC said.
By 11am EDT, maximum sustained winds had ebbed to 150 km/h, reducing the tempest to a Category 1 storm as it entered southeastern Georgia, the NHC said.
Two deaths reported in Florida
Two motorists died in separate rain-related crashes on Wednesday morning, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. In Wednesday afternoon's press briefing, DeSantis said he only knew of "unconfirmed" reports of storm-caused fatalities.
Florida Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue said at the briefing that the state's National Guard was conducting water rescues from vehicles in Hernando and Taylor counties.
About 1000 bridges are expected to be inspected in northern Florida on Wednesday before they can reopen, Perdue added.
More than 280,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida as of midday, Poweroutage.us reported. At least 92,000 in Georgia were also without power.
Government response
US President Biden on Wednesday had discussed the storm with DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in the 2024 presidential election, Deanne Criswell, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency's administrator, said.
A resident uses a kayak to travel on a flooded road in Tampa, Florida, on 30 August, 2023, after Hurricane Idalia made landfall. Photo: AFP
Biden was set to speak about the government's hurricane response efforts later on Wednesday.
Criswell, who will traveling to Florida on Thursday to asses the impact of the storm, said earlier that more than 1000 personnel from FEMA's rapid assessment teams were ready to hit the ground to assess storm damage once Idalia passes.
"Time will tell on how bad it is... and we could have more" storms, she said, adding that it has been "a very active hurricane season."
It was the fourth major hurricane to strike Florida in the past seven years, following Irma in 2017, Michael in 2018 and Ian, which peaked at Category 5, last September.
- Reuters
