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Home and cars across the Big Bend region were flooded, boats became unmoored and more than 260,000 people were without electricity in Florida. There were power outages for a further 100,000 people in Georgia.
About 900 flights across Florida and Georgia were cancelled or delayed, roofs were blown off houses and even the mansion of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was damaged by a 100-year-old oak tree falling on the property in Tallahassee, the state’s capital.
The remains of four old chicken houses, now used for storage, sit collapsed after the passage of Hurricane Idalia.Credit: AP
DeSantis’ wife Casey was home with their three children at the time, but as she posted on social media, “thankfully no one was injured”.
Rescue crews also had to free people from their homes in a Hudson Beach community after Idalia’s storm surge caused flooding in the area.
“We’re getting reports of anywhere between 3-5 feet of water that’s come inland and people are trapped in their houses,” said Pasco County Deputy Fire Chief Jeremy Sidlauskas.
Two deaths were confirmed – both before the hurricane made landfall – due to wet and slippery road conditions.
Visitors to the Southernmost Point buoy brave the waves made stronger from Hurricane Idalia.Credit: AP
The first took place just before 6am in Gainesville, when a 59-year-old man in a Toyota ute swerved and veered into a ditch before crashing into a nearby tree line.
The second occurred around 6.15am in Pascoe County when a 40-year-old man driving too fast for the road conditions lost control of his vehicle and collided with a tree.
In anticipation of a catastrophic surge of tidal water, millions of residents had evacuated to higher ground or hunkered down, but the storm’s power dissipated as it headed into Georgia.
“We’re kind of in that wait-and-hold pattern,” Georgia’s state Emergency Management Agency Director James Stallings said at a briefing.
Residents wade through a street flooded by rains brought on by Hurricane IdaliaCredit: AP
“Hopefully, it’s out of the state by 8pm this evening, maybe 10 o’clock, and then that we can begin to assess for those that were hit first.”
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said at a news conference that his state could expect high winds, flash flooding and “lots of rain”.
“Be careful and stay inside tonight,” he added.
Jewell Baggett searches for anything salvageable from the wreckage of her mother’s home, in Horseshoe Beach, Florida, after the passage of Hurricane Idalia.Credit: AP
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