Florida - Tuesday September 12, 2023: A fatal single-vehicle crash just hours before Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida has been declared the state's fourth death from the storm.
A 40-year-old man driving in heavy rain went off the road and hit a tree near Dade City in the Tampa Bay area as Hurricane Idalia approached.
The storm made landfall just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday August 30th, socking the Big Bend Region with Category 3 force winds of 125 mph winds.
In Gainesville, another man also died in a traffic crash before the storm hit. He was the first death confirmed by a state medical examiner.
The other two confirmed fatalities involved a windsurfer who went missing off Florida's Space Coast the same day Idalia struck, and an older adult who was struck by a falling tree after the storm passed while clearing debris with a tractor.
In order for any fatality to be confirmed as a storm related death in must be confirmed by a Florida state medical examiner.
In Georgia, the Lowndes County Sheriff Office confirmed one death involving a man who was trying to clear a tree from a roadway when a another tree fell on him and killed him.