Florida - Wednesday August 30, 2023: Hurricane Idalia officially made landfall this morning as a Category 3 Major Hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph near Keaton Beach along the Big Bend Coast at 7:45 a.m.
The strong winds have caused scattered to widespread flooding and power outages. There have been no reports of injury as of this time.
"The National Hurricane Center expects storm surge to reach up to 16 feet in some areas of the Big Bend region," said Governor DeSantis during a morning briefing in Tallahassee. " That level of storm surge is life threatening."
The significant storm surge threat will continue through early afternoon along coastal areas, especially the Big Bend Coast.
As of 9 a.m. the National Hurricane Center reported what they describe as "catastrophic" storm surge occurring along the Florida Big Bend coast. A NOAA National Ocean Service tide gauge at Cedar Key recently reported a water level of 6.8 feet above mean higher high water, which is the highest surge reported so far.
Before landfall Idalia was a Category 4 storm clocking sustained winds of 130 mph, but now that it is over land the winds have fallen. NOAA radar data, as of 9 a.m., indicated that the maximum sustained winds are now near 110 mph, with higher gusts.
LOCATION as of 9 a.m.: 30.2 north latitude and N 83.5 west longitude about 20 miles south southwest of Madison and about 45 miles south southwest of Valdosta.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS: 110 mph
PRESENT MOVEMENT: North northeast of 20 degrees at 18 mph
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE: 957 millibars or 28.26 inches
