Hurricane Idalia brings ‘catastrophic storm surge’ after hitting Florida, Georgia

globalnews.ca:

Hurricane Idalia entered Georgia Wednesday after making landfall in Florida, bringing a “catastrophic storm surge” to the latter state’s Big Bend coast.Shortly after hitting Florida, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Idalia was packing winds of 175 kilometres per hour, and was causing water levels at Cedar Key to reach highs of 6.8 feet above normal levels.“Catastrophic storm surge occurring along the coast of the Florida Big Bend and damaging winds spreading inland over northern Florida,” the NHC said.As of 1 p.m. eastern, NHC reported Idalia spreading heavy rain across southern Georgia and portions of the Carolinas.Idalia made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane around 7:45 a.m.

eastern at Keaton Beach, an ocean-front community of 13,000 people in Taylor County, roughly 121 kilometres southeast of the state capital Tallahassee. It has weakened, and was considered a Category 1 hurricane as of 11:30 a.m.

eastern.Keaton Beach lies in the centre of the Big Bend region, where the state’s northern panhandle curves into the Florida Peninsula.More than 350,000 Florida and Georgia homes and businesses are without power, according to 1 p.m. eastern data from PowerOutage.us, and U.S.

airlines have cancelled more than 1,000 flights so far.Idalia brought flooding to the streets from Tampa to Tallahassee, but moved through Florida by 1 p.m. eastern, Gov.