Gov. Ron DeSantis said the storm was about to make landfall, estimating it could do so by 8 a.m. Eastern. “Don’t mess with this storm,” he warned, telling people not to put themselves in jeopardy. “It’s going to be a significant, significant impact.”
A catastrophic storm surge will begin soon in the Big Bend area of Florida near where Idalia is forecast to make landfall, the National Hurricane Center warned. Read more about why a storm surge is so destructive.
From the NewYorkTimes and the National Weather Service/Hurricane center:
- At 5 a.m. Eastern time, Idalia (pronounced ee-DAL-ya) was about 90 miles south of Tallahassee. If Idalia remains a hurricane when it hits the city, it would be the most significant storm to affect the state capital in decades.
- A storm surge warning was in effect early Wednesday along a 400-mile stretch from Englewood to Indian Pass, including Tampa Bay, meaning more than half of Florida’s western coastline was at risk of life-threatening inundation from water being pushed inland.
- More than 50,000 customers in Florida were without power early Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages across the United States.