dpa
Miama
After intensifying overnight, Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend early Wednesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane, pushing a wall of destructive water into coastal communities and knocking out power to tens of thousands of people.
In a 7.45am (1145 GMT) update, the National Hurricane Service reported Idalia’s small but fierce eye came ashore near Keaton Beach, about 32km north of Steinhatchee in Taylor County. It was packing 200-kilometre-per-hour (km/h) sustained winds and headed northeast fast at 29 km/hh, but the real danger it brought was storm surge. As the sun rose Wednesday morning, the region was already getting hammered.
The storm was pushing a surge of Gulf of Mexico waters that could reach 4.9 metres in some areas. There were early reports of flooding from the heavily populated waterfronts around Tampa Bay to Cedar Key, another small Big Bend enclave. The NHC reported surge at 2.1 metres in Cedar Key early Wednesday, with floodwaters already filling streets and flooding some homes and buildings, water levels were expected to continue rising through the morning.
Livestreams of webcams stationed throughout the area showed roofs ripped off sheds near Horseshoe Beach, buildings completely inundated at Steinhatchee Marina and roads underwater in Cedar Key. Spots across the Big Bend region were reporting 5.1 to 10.2 centimetres of rain as Idalia moved inland, according to the WeatherSTEM network, with up to 16.8cm so far north of the eye, near Apalachee Bay.
In the hours before landfall, Idalia’s maximum sustained winds hit 210 km/h, Category 4 strength, but slightly weakened back to 201 km/h and Category 3 - not a significant difference as far as potential damage. The hurricane had also spawned tornado watches and warnings across much of north Central Florida and as far as south Georgia as Idalia’s outer bands began raking both states.
More than 45,000 people in the Big Bend area of the state were already without power on Wednesday morning, according to the Duke Energy tracker, dwarfing the 10,000 or so along the southwest coast reported in the Florida Power & Light tracker.
By 9am, the hurricane center said Idalia had weakened slightly to a Category 2, with sustained winds near 177 km/h. It was still moving north-northeast fast, at 29 km/h. That will keep the worst of its winds short-lived for the communities under siege and keep rainfall from being a worse threat. It was about 32km south-southeast of Madison, Florida.
Overnight, the fast-moving storm jogged a bit to the northeast in a long-expected turn that likely will spare the state capital of Tallahassee from the strongest winds around Idalia’s relatively small eyewall. But the full fury of the storm will be felt in the Big Bend, a sparely populated swath of nature and wildlife preserves known as Florida’s Nature coast. Some residents there were still debating later Tuesday whether to ride it out or evacuate. The memories of Hurricane Ian’s deadly flooding in Southwest Florida last year persuaded some to leave.
At a 6.30a. news conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state has “all hands on deck” to confront the damage that Hurricane Idalia will cause as it makes landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region this morning.
