Three States Assess the Damage Caused by Hurricane Idalia

At least three states—Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina—are beginning to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, August 30.

According to NBC News, about 300,000 customers were without power in the three states Friday morning. Flash flooding, urban flooding, and moderate river flooding were all possible within both South and North Carolina over the Labor Day weekend. In Florida, some homeowners had to literally swim out of their homes’ windows to escape the flooding. One woman, Brenda Henley, who fled her home as it was filling with water, told MSNBC, “I think we’ve lost everything.”

In the Gulf of Mexico island city of Cedar Key, Florida, the storm destroyed a hotel, while roads and bridges leading off the island were submerged in water.

“It doesn’t look good. All of our commercial buildings downtown are underwater. A serious percentage of our homes have been inundated with water,” local resident Michael Bobbitt told MSNBC. “In general, our structures are in trouble. Our roads are in trouble, but our community here is strong.”

According to CBS News, Idalia’s maximum sustained wind speeds were clocked as high as 125 miles per hour. As the storm heads toward North Carolina, “Little change in strength is expected,” the National Hurricane Center stated on Thursday, “but some gradual weakening could occur Friday and Saturday,” adding that storm surges could reach 4 feet in some places on the North Carolina coast.