Florida begins to assess damage after Hurricane Idalia: Live updates

Life-threatening conditions still hitting North Carolina, NHC warns

Flooding and heavy rainfall continue to cause life-threatening conditions in parts of eastern North Carolina, the National Hurricane Center has warned.

“A Storm Surge Watch means there is a possibility of life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline in the indicated locations,” the NHC said in a 5 a.m. ET update.

A tropical storm warning is in effect, covering from the South Santee River to the Virginia border as well as Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, and a storm surge warning covers coastal communities including Beaufort Inlet and Ocracoke Inlet.

The storm is expected to move east beyond the North Carolina coast at some point today — but tropical storm winds at its center could still reach 185mph. Tornadoes are also possible in the area, the NHC said.

Homes slowly reconnected to power grid in Florida and Georgia

Some of the thousands of households without power as a result of Idalia have been reconnected.

In Florida 143,000 customers remain without power, compared to some 150,000 late Wednesday, according to the tracking website Poweroutage.us as of 4 a.m. ET Thursday.

In Georgia 118,000 customers are without power, a reduction from 149,000 overnight.

More than 50,000 customers are without power in the Carolinas, according to Poweroutage.us.

Photo: Hurricane aftermath in Horseshoe Beach, Fla.

A pickup truck sits halfway into a canal in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., after the passage of Hurricane Idalia on Wednesday.

Floridians describe terror of escaping storm damage

PERRY, Florida — Many homes here didn’t stand a chance.

Devastating winds and a storm surge combined to make Tropical Storm Idalia the strongest weather event to hit the Big Bend in more than a century, with some communities completely cut off.

One family in Perry survived massive trees crushing their home. Summer, holding her baby, Amelia, while sheltering in her car, said: “It was kind of terrifying, honestly.”

Her husband, Brandon, heard a tree snap and jumped on top of his family to protect them. “It was what anyone would do,” Brandon said.

Idalia could hit Bermuda next week

Officials in Bermuda warned that Idalia could hit the island early next week as a tropical storm.

Bermuda was being lashed today by the outer bands of Hurricane Franklin, a Category 2 storm that was on track to pass near the island in the north Atlantic Ocean.

Flooding 2 to 3-feet deep seen in McClellanville, fire district says

A photo from the South Carolina coastal community of McClellanville showed flooded roads that the fire district estimated to be between 2 and 3 feet.

The photo was shared on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, by the Awendaw-McClellanville Fire District, which estimated the depth. Answering the National Weather Service in Charleston, the fire district said the flooding was believed to be from storm surge.

Idalia southwest of Myrtle Beach

Tropical Storm Idalia was about 20 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach, with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph as of around 2 a.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center said in an update.

The storm continued to move northeast at 21 mph, the NHC said.

Video shows waves crashing in Charleston, South Carolina

Tampa and Tallahassee international airports to resume full operations

Tampa International Airport intends to resume its full operations at 3 a.m. today, it announced.

The airport reopened to arriving flights yesterday afternoon, after Idalia had moved away from the area.

Though the airport had some flooding, there was no serious storm damage, it said.

Normal operations are also expected to resume today at Tallahassee International Airport.

Idalia producing ‘very heavy rain’

Idalia remained a tropical storm late last night and was producing “very heavy rain” in South Carolina, the National Hurricane Center said in an update.

The center of the storm was around 15 miles north-northwest of Charleston at 11 p.m., the agency said. It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph.

Some storm surge warnings were discontinued, but a storm surge warning remained for a stretch of the South Carolina coast from the Savannah River to the South Santee River, which includes Charleston.

The storm is expected to move offshore sometime today, according to the hurricane center.

Peak wind gusts from around South Carolina

Satellite images capture Hurricane Idalia’s flooding in Florida’s Big Bend

Satellite images illustrate the damage in Florida’s Big Bend where Hurricane Idalia made landfall.

The Category 3 storm made landfall near Keaton Beach with sustained wind speeds topping 125 mph just before 8 a.m. yesterday.

Idalia flooded streets, downed power lines, snapped trees, destroyed homes and brought activity to a halt for a time yesterday.

Read the full story here.

Florida had feared the worst while still recovering from last year’s Hurricane Ian, which hit the heavily populated Fort Myers area, killing 149 people in the state. Unlike that storm, Idalia blew into a very lightly inhabited area known as Florida’s “nature coast,” one of the state’s most rural regions, which lies far from crowded metropolises or busy tourist areas and features millions of acres of undeveloped land.

That doesn’t mean it didn’t do major damage. Rushing water covered streets near the coast and unmoored small boats, and nearly a half-million customers in Florida and Georgia lost power.

In Perry, the wind blew out store windows, tore siding off buildings and overturned a gas station canopy. Heavy rains partly flooded Interstate 275 in Tampa, and wind toppled power lines onto the northbound side of Interstate 75 just south of Valdosta, Georgia.

Less than 20 miles south of where Idalia made landfall, businesses, boat docks and homes in Steinhatchee, Florida, were swallowed up by water surging in from Deadman’s Bay. Police officers blocked traffic into the coastal community of more than 500 residents known for fishing and foresting industries.