Hurricane Idalia strengthens into a Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds

Hurricane Idalia strengthened to a Category 2 storm with 100 mph (155 kph) winds on Tuesday as it barrelled toward Florida's Gulf Coast.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Idalia is expected to become a major hurricane Tuesday night before it reaches the Big Bend, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula, and is still likely to be a hurricane while moving across southern Georgia on Wednesday.

Authorities warned residents of vulnerable areas along the Gulf Coast to pack up and leave to escape the twin threats of high winds and devastating flooding. The hurricane could deal a big blow to a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year's Hurricane Ian.

 

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia "an unprecedented event" since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend region.

At 5 pm EDT Tuesday, Idalia was about 310 kilometers southwest of Tampa, the National Hurricane Centre said. It was moving north at 26 kph.

On the island of Cedar Key, Commissioner Sue Colson joined other city officials in packing up documents and electronics at City Hall. She had a message for the almost 900 residents who were under mandatory orders to evacuate the island near the coast of the Big Bend region. More than a dozen state troopers went door to door warning residents that storm surge could rise as high as 4.5 metres.

"One word: Leave," Colson said. "It's not something to discuss."

Not everyone was heeding the warning. Andy Bair, owner of the Island Hotel, said he intended to "babysit" his bed-and-breakfast, which predates the Civil War. The building has not flooded in the almost 20 years he has owned it, not even when Hurricane Hermine flooded the city in 2016.

"Being a caretaker of the oldest building in Cedar Key, I just feel kind of like I need to be here," Bair said. "We've proven time and again that we're not going to wash away. We may be a little uncomfortable for a couple of days, but we'll be OK eventually."

Tolls were waived on highways out of the danger area, shelters were open and hotels prepared to take in evacuees. More than 30,000 utility workers were gathering to make repairs as quickly as possible in the hurricane's wake. About 5,500 National Guard troops were activated.

In Tarpon Springs, a coastal community northwest of Tampa, 60 patients were evacuated from a hospital out of concern that the system could bring a 2.1-metre storm surge.

"You do not have to leave the state. You don't have to drive hundreds of miles," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Tuesday morning at the state's emergency operations centre. "You have to get to higher ground in a safe structure. You can ride the storm out there, then go back to your home."

Idalia's initial squalls were being felt in the Florida Keys and the southwestern coast of Florida on Tuesday afternoon, including at Clearwater Beach. Workers at beachside bars and T-shirt shops boarded up windows, children skim-surfed the waves and hundreds of people watched the increasingly choppy waters from the safety of the sand.

After landing in the Big Bend region, Idalia is forecast to cross the Florida peninsula and then drench southern Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday. Both Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced states of emergency, freeing up state resources and personnel, including hundreds of National Guard troops.

"We'll be prepared to the best of our abilities," said Russell Guess, who was topping off the gas tank on his truck in Valdosta, Georgia. His co-workers at Cunningham Tree Service were doing the same. "There will be trees on people's house, trees across power lines."

Meanwhile, Idalia thrashed Cuba with heavy rain, especially in the westernmost part of the island, where the tobacco-producing province of Pinar del Rio is still recovering from Ian. More than 10,000 people evacuated to shelters or stayed with friends and relatives as up to 10 centimeters of rain fell. More than half of the province was without electricity.

Idalia will be the first storm to hit Florida this hurricane season, but it's only the latest in a summer of natural disasters, including wildfires in Hawaii, Canada and Greece; the first tropical storm to hit California in 84 years, and devastating flooding in Vermont.