Florida - Wednesday August 30, 2023: Packing sustained winds of 125 mph, Idalia made landfall at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday morning as a Category 3 Hurricane. It came ashore near Keaton Beach along the Big Bend Coast. Winds speeds quickly fell to 110 mph and continued to fall as it sped across northern Florida reaching Georgia by noon.
In its wake, downed trees and power lines, wide-spread property damage, but not as bad as many had feared.
“The Tampa Bay area, things are good," said the Governor at a mid-day briefing "Leon County is doing well, we’re still assessing the places that had the initial impact.”
As of late Wednesday first responders had not reached many of the hardest hit areas in the Big Bend region, a sparsely populated, rural area. “There are, as of now, no confirmed fatalities," said the Governor. "There have been unconfirmed reports of traffic fatalities that maybe storm related and maybe not.”
And there have been no reported issues at any medical facilities in the storm’s path, said Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie. "Whether that’s nursing homes or hospitals, everybody is reporting what we would call Green, and everything’s all right.”
Most residents appeared to have heeded evacuation calls, although Guthrie said roughly 100 people in Levy county and another 50 in Taylor county did not. “We had a lot of people call 911 saying 'I’m entrapped in my house, I’m OK, but I need help.'" said Guthrie. "The ones that we’re in distress we got folks to immediately. There is no one in distress that has not been taken care of."
The Governor however noted emergency responders got far fewer distress calls when compared to those received during Hurricane Ian last year.
However Idalia's wind and rain caused widespread physical damage and flooding. Madison and Taylor counties appear to have suffered the worst, said Guthrie. "The biggest impacted area that we have seem to be in Perry. We know we have a couple of businesses that caught on fire, a few that have roofs knocked off of them, potentially one collapsed. But do have crews that are working hand in hand with Taylor County Fire and Rescue.”
The assessment continues and Idalia's final toll won’t be known for at least several more days.