The State of Florida During the Early Stages of Hurricane Idalia, an Overhead Category 4 Hurricane Taking over Central and West Florida

Hurricane Idalia intensified overnight and is now a Category 4 storm heading toward Florida’s Gulf Coast. It has wind speeds of 130 miles an hour and is expected to make landfall around 8 a.m Eastern, bringing catastrophic waves and potentially submerging the coast in up to 16 feet of flooding. You can track the storm’s path here.

The strongest part of the storm will be over the Big Bend, where the state’s long peninsula curves to meet its Panhandle. Governors in Georgia and the Carolinas declared states of emergency due to concerns about heavy rains and possible tornadoes, as well as officials who ordered the evacuation of people in Central and West Florida.

Throughout Wednesday, heavy rains and gusty winds and rains lashed the region, leaving hundreds of businesses and entire neighborhoods submerged in water. Hundreds of thousands of people have also gone without electricity for much of the day. Over 133,000 customers in Georgia were without power, compared to nearly 150,000 in the state of Florida.

Over 50,000 soldiers and airmen from the Florida National Guard are either deployed or will be deployed, with help coming from as far away as California.

Communities along hundreds of miles of coastline emptied grocery store shelves of water, as well as boarded up windows. 700 people live in the city of Cedar Key, which has seen many people flee. “My family has been here for many generations,” said the mayor, Heath Davis. We haven’t seen a storm of this magnitude before.

“It does not mean that there won’t be trees coming down late this afternoon, early this evening in places like Savannah, power lines coming down. Still a very dangerous situation people need to prepare for as this storm moves through the state,” Kemp said.

Kemp warned residents to stay prepared after the storm weakened.

Several authorities have been dispatched across the state, including Florida Urban Search and Rescue, the Florida National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Florida State Guard, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Many residents decided to evacuate due to the fact that the agency didn’t find many of the people it was looking for in their homes.

Kevin Gurthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said that by Wednesday evening there were no outstanding missing person reports.

During a Wednesday evening news conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “There is currently one unconfirmed fatality that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is vetting. This was a traffic accident that resulted in a death.

It is unclear how many lives have been claimed by the fierce storm. At least one person was killed in Georgia, according to The Associated Press. Two men were killed in separate crashes before Idalia hit, according to Florida Highway Patrol officials.

In northern Florida, primary roads became impassable with downed power lines and split trees strewn across traffic lanes. In South Carolina, the National Weather Service reported “major coastal inundation,” including in downtown Charleston where water had broken through the historic seawall, the Charleston battery.

Due to the “broadness and extensive damage of our hurricane event county wide, and for safety and security of our citizens and first responders, the curfew will remain in effect until further notice and evaluated daily for continued need,” Sheriff David Harper wrote on Facebook.