(Updated throughout with arrival of Idalia on Florida)
by Maria Alejandra Cardona and Marco Bello
STEINHATCHEE, Fla., Aug. 30 (Reuters) –
Millions of residents were evacuated or took shelter as Hurricane Idalia swept through Florida on Wednesday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rains.
The hurricane, classified in category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale which has 5, affected the region of Big Bend, in the north of the state, after having strengthened in contact with the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
It could cause a rise in water up to 4.88 meters on the coast.
“Don’t put your life at risk by doing anything stupid at this point. This thing is powerful,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press briefing in Tallahassee that was interrupted for seconds. by a power outage.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Idalia made landfall at 7:45 a.m. local time (11:45 GMT) in Keaton Beach, a beachfront community of 13,000 in Taylor County, about 121 km southeast of Tallahassee, the state capital.
Overnight, Idalia reached “extremely dangerous Category 4 intensity” according to the NHC, before the hurricane weakened slightly with winds of up to 201 kilometers per hour.
Any storm reaching category 3 is considered a major hurricane.
STORM SURGE
Storm warnings have been issued for most of Florida’s 21 million residents, as well as many residents of neighboring states of Georgia and South Carolina.
The Gulf Coast of Florida, southeast Georgia and eastern portions of North Carolina and South Carolina could receive 10 to 20 cm of rain through Thursday. Up to 30cm of rain could fall in some isolated areas, the NHC warned.
Authorities are particularly concerned about a storm surge that is expected to inundate barrier islands and other low-lying areas of Florida’s Gulf Coast. An alert has been broadcast for hundreds of miles of coastline from the Sarasota area to Tampa.
At the White House, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he was in “permanent contact” with Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, about preparations for the hurricane.
Joe Biden was due to speak later Wednesday on the government’s hurricane response efforts.
Airports in Tampa, Clearwater and Tallahassee ceased operations. In total, airlines canceled more than 850 flights in the United States on Wednesday and around 795 flights were delayed.
Idalia is the fourth major hurricane to hit Florida in the past seven years, following Irma in 2017, Michael in 2018 and Ian, which reached Category 5 last September.
(Reporting Maria Alejandra Cardona in Steinhatchee, Marco Bello in Cedar Key, Joey Roulette in Tampa, Rich McKay in Atlanta, Nelson Acosta in Havana, Dave Sherwood in Guanimar, Brad Brooks in Longmont (Colorado), Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Nandita Bose in Washington; written by Steve Gorman; with contributions by Shivansh Tiwary and Nathan Gomes in Bangalore; French version Camille Raynaud and Blandine Hénault, edited by Kate Entringer)
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