August 30, 2023
Extremely dangerous Category 3 Hurricane #Idalia makes landfall in the Florida Big Bend.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in a storm update announcing that Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Wednesday morning at around 7:45 am EDT. It made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane after being downgraded from Category 4.
Why It Matters: In its announcement on the hurricane making landfall, the NHC explained: "Maximum sustained winds were estimated to be 125 mph. Catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds ongoing." Water levels along the Florida Big Bend coast (the Big Bend region is where the peninsula of Florida merges with the Panhandle) continued to rise "rapidly," the NHC said Wednesday morning. More than 30 counties have been given varying evacuation orders with residents being told to seek higher ground.
Since making landfall, the storm has weakened into a Category 2 hurricane, however, "with sustained winds of 110 miles per hour, it still presented a grave threat, as the National Hurricane Center warned of 'catastrophic' storm surge" (The New York Times). More than 245,000 customers were without power in Florida as of Wednesday morning, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us.
Hurricane Path: Idalia is expected to hit a large portion of central Florida before moving up the eastern coastline through Georgia and the Carolina's on Wednesday and Thursday.
#developing
by Jenna Lee,
