Idalia path tracker WATCH LIVE: Storm downgraded to tropical depression
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Hurricane Idalia, the latest severe storm to hit the United States, made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday morning around 7:45 a.m., and it was downgraded to a tropical depression Wednesday evening as it traveled over Georgia.
The storm weakened to a tropical depression Wednesday around 5 p.m., according to the National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Idalia made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane despite strengthening to a Category 4 hurricane at about 5 a.m. Wednesday morning. The storm triggered evacuations and states of emergency in the Southeast. Millions have been placed under a severe weather watch in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
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The storm decreased to a Category 1 hurricane after making landfall Wednesday morning and was located approximately 100 miles west-southwest of Savannah, Georgia, around 3 p.m. EDT. It was moving to the northeast at 20 mph.
While Idalia made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday, the NHC warned late Tuesday night that Idalia was “still strengthening … forecast to be an extremely dangerous Category 4 intensity at landfall.”
Several hours later, the agency warned that a “catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds are nearing the Florida Big Bend region.”
Category 4 hurricanes carry winds of 130-156 mph, and “catastrophic damage will occur,” according to the NHC. “Well-built framed homes can sustain severe damage with loss of most of the roof structure and/or some exterior walls. Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.”
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Where is the hurricane headed?
Idalia, now a tropical depression, was heading northeast at 21 miles per hour over Georgia as of about 5 p.m. Wednesday.
According to the NHC and CPHC, a risk of freshwater flooding, storm surge, and strong winds was still present in Georgia and the Carolinas at that time.
Hurricane Idalia
Idalia is the first major storm to strike Florida’s Big Bend area, where the Panhandle meets the peninsula, since 1950, when Hurricane Easy made landfall. Tampa Bay is included in the Big Bend area and is under evacuation orders.
The storm is expected to affect 46 counties in Florida along its Gulf Coast. Experts have also warned storm surges as high as 11 feet were possible for much of northwestern Florida and into the Panhandle. Storm surges account for nearly half of all hurricane-related fatalities, according to the NOAA, and is the reason behind the majority of storm evacuations.
President Joe Biden said he has been in contact with the governors of Georgia, Florida, and North and South Carolina and has been updated on the latest in the storm. The Biden administration has mobilized more than 1,500 federal personnel and more than 540 urban search and rescue team personnel, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Cedar Key Mayor Heath Davis urged all citizens on the island to evacuate ahead of the hurricane, but close to 100 residents refused to leave. Davis said all emergency services would stop on Tuesday evening, when wind gusts in the area reached 39 mph.
“It is imperative that our citizens realize that we’re very serious about that,” Davis told CNN Tuesday. “We can’t allow our employees, our staff, and in this case, because our community is so small, our friends and our family go out into the storm as bad as it’s going to be and put people in danger.”
Several airports closed on Wednesday ahead of Idalia’s landfall, including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, and Tallahassee, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. They intend to open on Thursday depending on damage suffered from the hurricane.
In addition to areas of Florida, NHC said storm surge warnings were in effect for St. Catherine’s Sound in Georgia to South Santee River in South Carolina. Hurricane warnings were in effect for Altamaha Sound in Georgia to Edisto Beach in South Carolina.
A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected somewhere within the area, while a storm surge warning is considered a “life-threatening situation,” with a danger of “life-threatening inundation” from rising water moving inland from the coastline.
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Another hurricane, dubbed Hurricane Franklin, which was a Category 4 hurricane, was located off the East Coast. However, Franklin was not considered likely to affect much of the U.S. and was expected to skirt the Southeastern coast.
The storms happen to fall around the anniversary of the deadly Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2004.