Idalia extends its destruction along the southeastern US coastline
Florida During the First Major Hurricane Idalia: State of Emergency Management and Public Safety Warnings for the Southern U.S. A Joint Emergency Management Plan
The American mainland is expected to be more active this Atlantic season than usual because of the first major Hurricane Idalia. Climate change is partly to blame for the record-breaking ocean temperatures off the Florida coast.
The strongest part of the storm will be over Florida’s Big Bend, where the state’s long peninsula curves to meet its Panhandle. Though that region is sparsely populated, the storm is expected to affect much of the southeastern United States: Officials issued evacuation orders in counties across West and Central Florida, and governors in Georgia and the Carolinas declared states of emergency because of concerns about heavy rains and potential tornadoes.
Over a hundred businesses and entire neighborhoods were submerged in water as the region was soaked by heavy rains and winds. Hundreds of thousands of people have gone without power for the entire day. Power Outage.us stated that more than 130,000 customers were out of power in Georgia and Florida, and that there were almost 150,000 customers without power in Florida.
The Florida National Guard is fully mobilized, with more than 55,000 soldiers and airmen either deployed or deploying, and help is coming from as far away as California.
Across hundreds of miles of coastline, communities boarded up windows, emptied grocery store shelves of water and filled buildings with sand to fortify them. Many people have fled Cedar Key, a city that has 700 people. “My family has been here for many generations,” said the mayor, Heath Davis. “We haven’t seen a storm this bad, ever.”
It doesn’t mean there won’t be trees coming down late in the afternoon and early in the evening, and power lines coming down. Kemp said people need to be prepared for a dangerous situation as the storm moves through the state.
Speaking from the Georgia Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta early Wednesday, Kemp warned residents to stay prepared, even after the storm weakened.
The Florida National Guard, the Florida State Guard, and the Florida Urban Search and Rescue are some of the authorities dispatched to the state.
Many residents chose to evacuate after 75% of the agency’s primary search was complete and they weren’t finding anyone in their homes.
According to Kevin Gurthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management there were no outstanding missing person reports on Wednesday.
During a Wednesday evening news conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “There is currently one unconfirmed fatality that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is vetting. This was a fatality involving a traffic incident that is being looked at.”
It’s not clear how many lives have been lost by the storm. The Associated Press said one person was killed in Georgia. The Highway Patrol in Florida said two men were killed in crashes related to rain shortly before Idalia struck the state.
Primary roads in north Florida became unpassable with downed power lines and trees strewn across traffic lanes. In South Carolina, the National Weather Service reported “major coastal inundation,” including in downtown Charleston where water had broken through the historic seawall, the Charleston battery.
Due to the “broadness and extensive damage of our hurricane event county wide, and for safety and security of our citizens and first responders, the curfew will remain in effect until further notice and evaluated daily for continued need,” Sheriff David Harper wrote on Facebook.
