Florida begins Thursday to assess the extent of the damage left in its path by Hurricane Idalia, which caused record high water levels and widespread flooding and continues its destructive path on the southeastern coast of the United States.
Downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Idalia notably headed for the neighboring state of Georgia where it was accompanied by torrential rains, reaching up to 25 centimeters, and rising waters threatening the inhabitants of the coasts and causing power outages.
Thursday morning, more than 310,000 homes were without electricity in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, according to the specialized site PowerOutage.us.
So far, no fatalities have been reported, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has warned that “that could very well change” given the magnitude of the storm.
Emergency services will need time to assess the damage in isolated areas where access is complicated by falling trees or rising waters, authorities have warned.
In Florida, where it made landfall at 7:45 a.m. local time Wednesday, Idalia carried winds of up to 130 mph (215 km/h) and caused water levels to rise up to 5 meters in some coastal areas, the national hurricane center said. NHC.
Idalia had struck Florida as a category 3 hurricane on a scale of 5, according to the NHC, and then lost intensity even if it continues to carry strong winds of up to nearly 100 km / h in Georgia and Caroline from the south.
“We still have a lot of flooding in the city,” Charleston, SC Emergency Services Director Ben Almquist told CNN.
The authorities, however, hope for a marked improvement from Thursday morning local time.
“Everything should improve once we pass (Wednesday) midnight,” predicted Ron Morales, US weather services based in Charleston, interviewed by the local press.
Idalia is projected to complete its run over the Atlantic sometime today on Thursday.
Mass evacuations were ordered on Wednesday for thousands of residents in Florida, even if many of them preferred to hunker down at home.
In Perry, a town located on the trajectory of Idalia, dozens of trees were downed by the wind. A pine fell on the home of John Kallschmidt, 76, who says he had a “scary” experience.
“It was worse than we expected,” he told AFP. “But that’s how it is, that’s life in Florida. You have to get used to that stuff.
A little further away, in Steinhatchee, a small coastal town of a thousand inhabitants, the main street, almost deserted, was completely flooded and seems to be an extension of the neighboring river.
– Climate change-
“Trees fell in front of my house but otherwise the house was spared. Everything is fine,” Patrick Boland, visibly relieved, told AFP.
In the Tampa Bay area, where nearly 3 million people reside, roads have been submerged in water, sometimes forcing residents to travel by boat.
Federal authorities have deployed more than 1,000 emergency personnel to the area, amid calls for vigilance from the White House.
“Idalia is the most powerful storm to make landfall in this part of Florida in more than 100 years,” said Deanne Criswell, head of the federal agency responsible for the response to natural disasters (Fema), on Wednesday.
Idalia was felt as far as the western tip of Cuba where heavy rains also caused flooding and power outages.
Scientists have warned that the storms are getting more powerful as the planet heats up due to climate change.
“I don’t think anyone can deny the effects of climate change now. Just look around,” noted Joe Biden, citing “historic floods” or recent devastating fires in Hawaii and Canada.
01/09/2023 13:25:10 – Perry (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
