The National Hurricane Center is projecting that Hurricane Idalia will hit Florida’s Gulf Coast with heavy winds as early as Tuesday. It is the first storm to hit the state this hurricane season.
Forecasts indicate Idalia’s center is set to reach Florida’s Gulf Coast as “an extremely dangerous major hurricane before landfall on Wednesday,” the center said, before heading through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina later in the week. The National Hurricane Center is projecting the hurricane could have sustained winds of up to 120 mph — making it a Category 3 storm.
“Right now, the biggest hazards are storm surge,” Robbie Berg of the National Hurricane Center told The Associated Press on Tuesday morning. “We’re expecting a surge as much as 8 to 12 feet above normal tide levels in portions of the Big Bend area of Florida.”
Authorities in Florida were urging residents to finish their storm preparations by Tuesday morning.
Tap the link in our bio for more. Julia Griffin, Yasmeen Alamiri, Dan Cooney and Travis Daub produced and edited this post. Credit: NOAA.
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