Important Takeaways:
- Eyewall of monster CAT-3 Hurricane Idalia batters Florida’s Big Bend as 16ft storm surge floods homes and leaves more than 200,000 without power: Thousands flee north
- It’s the strongest storm to make landfall in the Big Bend region in 127 years, matching an unnamed hurricane in 1896.
- Idalia surged to a Category 4 storm in the early hours because of warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, reaching speeds of up to 156mph – before dropping to 125mph shortly after 7am.
- The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has warned of catastrophic storm surges of up to 12 to 16 feet in the worst affected areas.
- St Petersburg Police shared a video of the level of flooding which was sweeping away homes at a mobile trailer park, and confirmed they had already rescued one person by 6:50am.
- Hurricane Idalia has been branded ‘an unprecedented event’ by the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.
- Idalia could spawn tornadoes as far south as Tampa and Sarasota, east to Jacksonville and north to the Georgia coast later today.
- During a press conference on Wednesday, Governor Ron DeSantis warned ‘don’t mess with this storm’ as the power briefly went out from his headquarters.
- He added that there have been 11 tornado warnings issued, saying: ‘It’s going to be a significant, significant impact.’
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Important Takeaways:
- Hurricane Warning in effect as AccuWeather warns Idalia will undergo explosive strengthening ahead of Florida landfall
- AccuWeather hurricane experts say the storm will rapidly intensify into a powerful major hurricane over the eastern Gulf of Mexico before making landfall in the state’s Big Bend area of the coast.
- An ‘extreme’ risk for impacts is now in place for a portion of the Sunshine State, centered around the region bridging the Gulf coasts of the panhandle and peninsula. This area will be most at risk for life-threatening storm surge flooding, damaging winds and torrential rain as Hurricane Idalia approaches on Wednesday morning.
- Officials issued mandatory evacuation orders on Monday for parts of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in Florida due to life-threatening conditions anticipated
- Given the risk for rapid intensification, an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 155 mph is possible near landfall near the panhandle and Big Bend of Florida. AccuWeather hurricane experts are forecasting Idalia to come ashore as a major hurricane, with Category 3 level winds (111 to 129 mph) on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
- It’s not out of the question that some portions of Tampa Bay could have a storm surge of 7 or 8 feet, according to AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski. The greatest storm surge, perhaps as high as 10-15 feet, is expected near and just to the southeast of Idalia’s landfall.
- Where the most intense rainfall occurs, rainfall totals can approach an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 18 inches, which would lead to major, life-threatening flooding, since most of the rain will fall over the span of 12 hours or less.
- “Tornadoes can also occur to the east of the center of the circulation as it moves across Florida”
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