2023-08-30 15:33:45
Gusts from Idalia are sweeping across Florida on Wednesday where the hurricane made landfall, causing “catastrophic” and life-threatening flooding.
Idalia made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 a.m. local time on Florida’s northwest coast as a Category 3 hurricane with extremely high winds of up to 205 km/h, the National Center said. hurricanes (NHC).
“Disastrous marine flooding events are underway along the coast and dangerous gusts are moving into the interior and north of Florida,” the institute said.
After briefly moving to category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which includes 5, Idalia has been downgraded to category 1 and its gusts now blow up to 150 km / h, according to the latest NHC bulletin.
In Steinhatchee, a small town of a thousand inhabitants located on the coast 30 km south of Keaton Beach, the main street, almost deserted, is completely flooded and seems to be an extension of the neighboring river.
Patrick Boland sealed himself off at home, instead of evacuating, to face the passage of the hurricane and does not regret his choice.
Other cities have seen water levels rise at high speed, such as Cedar Key, located on the coast, which reported waves of more than 2 meters, a record level for the area.
“It’s flooded, everything’s flooded,” Shely Boivin, the manager of the Beach Front motel in the resort, told CNN. “I just saw picnic tables coming down the street in the rushing flood.”
Clearwater or Tampa also saw their streets and their port flooded, the inhabitants having to move in meters of water with their belongings on their heads.
“The flooding we are experiencing now is nothing compared to what will happen in a few hours,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned on CNN, explaining that the tide was expected to rise in the next few hours bringing with it meters of additional water.
This hurricane is “powerful and if you are at home, take shelter until it passes,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned Wednesday at a press conference. people unable or unwilling to evacuate their homes in time.
More than 286,000 homes were thus without electricity Wednesday morning in Florida, according to the specialized site Poweroutage.us.
American meteorologists have warned against rising waters that could go up to a range of 3 to 5 meters in places.
“Very few people can survive being in the way of a major coastal flood and this storm will be deadly if we don’t get out of harm’s way and take it seriously,” the boss said. Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell.
Ron DeSantis had called on people in evacuation zones in 23 counties along the coast the previous day to leave “immediately”, adding that the hurricane would likely be the most powerful to hit the region in more than a century. .
Federal aid
US President Joe Biden, who spoke with Mr DeSantis, as he is running for president in 2024, had on Monday approved a declaration of a state of emergency, released federal aid and prepositioned some aid personnel to natural disasters.
Tampa International Airport closed and flights were suspended on the east coast of the United States, plagued by another hurricane, Franklin, which came from the Atlantic.
Although its intensity waned after making landfall, Idalia is still expected to be a hurricane when its gusts hit southeast Georgia on Wednesday afternoon and then South Carolina, which declared a state of emergency.
On the western tip of Cuba, heavy rains generated by Idalia, then a tropical storm, also caused flooding and power cuts.
At the end of September 2022, Florida had already been hit by Hurricane Ian, which killed nearly 150 people and caused extensive damage as it passed through the southwest of this state.
Scientists have warned that the storms are getting more powerful as the planet heats up due to climate change.
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