Hurricane Idalia made landfall in western Florida and moved rapidly north. After reaching category 4 on its way, it was downgraded to level 1 on its landing, which does not mean that it no longer carries a dangerous load.
"The threat is real, we are very worried about what could happen", stressed the mayor of Savannah, the monumental city of Georgia.
Although there was enormous fear, its impact seemed much less tragic than that of Irma last year. But, perhaps because of what was learned then, precautions were intensified for a hurricane that was extremely dangerous because of the record high temperatures in the ocean in an era of human-induced global warming.
But despite its loss of power, Idalia lashed Florida with winds of 120 miles per hour, which later dropped to 144 in the Big Bend area, where the peninsula curves to meet with the Panhandle, the westernmost territory, not having experienced such a hurricane in more than a century.
Although there was not so much desolation, Deanne Criswell, head of FEMA (the federal emergency agency), made a plea to citizens: "Don't venture out of the house."
Southern cities like St. Petesburg and Clearwater, popular beach destinations, were spared the direct impact recorded in nearby areas where destruction predominated – homes damaged, trees snapped or uprooted, overturned cars – and flooding of homes and roads due to the amount of 'rainwater and sea level rise. There were highways that turned into impassable rivers or lakes.
At least two deaths were attributed to this storm shortly after it broke out. The two deaths were recorded in traffic accidents caused by the weather, authorities confirmed.
Florida's problem became the same one that Georgia later faced and that hovered over the two Carolinas, in a state of tornado alert. Despite the degradation, the National Hurricane Center insisted on the catastrophe alert due to sustained winds and rising tides.
"That's our concern, we're dealing with flooding several miles inland," insisted Lt. Scott Tummond, of the Levy County Sheriff's Office. Evacuation orders, at least partially, affected 30 of Florida's 67 counties. About 260,000 users were without energy supply at home.
Some areas suffered floods from 3.6 meters to almost 5, with waves of devastating capacity, as the aforementioned center pointed out. The emergency services had to carry out numerous rescue services for trapped people.
Once the worst was over, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that affected airports would reopen between Wednesday night and Thursday. More than 900 flights were affected in his state and in Georgia. The governor indicated they were still assessing the damage. He clarified, however, that the National Guard had been deployed in search and rescue tasks for possible missing persons.
The flood of the Crystal River caused an area of houses of poor citizens to be completely flooded. The 911 emergency service was suffering from another flood, that of calls from people trapped in their homes by the flood.
The area of worst impact moved to southern Georgia, with winds of 136 kilometers per hour, and continued on its path towards Savannah. Governor Brian Kemp remarked on the "strong impact" that the state could suffer. More than 70,000 people had already been left without electricity supply.
