Hurricane Idalia makes landfall on Florida’s west coast

Cedar Key, The Gulf Observer: Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s west coast as a dangerous Category 3 storm on Wednesday and was unleashing life-threatening storm surges and rainfall in an area not accustomed to such pummeling.

Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. It made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 a.m. as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph (205 kph). And the storm brought flooding to the streets of Tampa and other communities.

Florida residents living in vulnerable coastal areas were ordered to pack up and leave as Idalia gained strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. And those who didn’t were warned to find a safe place while the storm moves through.

“Don’t put your life at risk by doing anything dumb at this point,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “This thing’s powerful. If you’re inside, just hunker down until it gets past you.”

Storm surge could rise as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters) in some places.

Diane Flowers was sound asleep at 1 a.m. Wednesday in her Wakulla County home while her husband watched the weather on TV. When the storm was upgraded to a Category 4, they received a text from their son, a firefighter/EMT in Franklin County, which is also along the Gulf Coast.

“He said, ‘You guys need to leave,’” Flowers said. “And he’s not one for overreacting, so when he told us to leave, we just packed our stuff, got in our car and got going.”

They quickly packed a few clothes, their medicine, dog food for their two border collies, a computer, important documents and a bag of Cheetos and went searching for a place to stay, and ended up in Dothan, Alabama.