Update: Idalia Knocks Out Power Across Southeast, Snarls Flights, Churns to Georgia

Hurricane Idalia churned into Georgia after knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of Florida customers, grounding more than 900 flights and unleashing floods far from where it came ashore as a Category 3 storm earlier Wednesday.

Idalia’s top winds dropped to 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour, making it a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale as it crossed into Georgia, the US National Hurricane Center said in an 11 a.m. New York time advisory. The storm came ashore earlier as a Category 3 hurricane near Keaton Beach, Florida.

“Relatively fast weakening is anticipated through the rest of the day,” Robbie Berg, a forecaster at the center, wrote in his outlook. “Damaging hurricane-force winds will occur where the core of Idalia moves across southern Georgia and southern South Carolina within the hurricane warning area through this evening.”

Despite its winds dropping, Idalia will likely remain a hurricane until Wednesday night.

While Idalia hit a sparsely populated area, it could still bring on $10 billion in damages as it moves across northern Florida into Georgia and South Carolina in the coming days, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research.

“There are a lot of mobile homes/manufactured housing inland, especially in south Georgia, that are not going to hold up well in these winds,” Watson said in an email. “The dollar value of this one won’t be as high — maybe $10 billion depending on how strong Idalia stays as it goes to the coast — but the impact on the people is going to be pretty high.”

No storm of this intensity has struck Apalachee Bay, near where Idalia made landfall, with a direct hit since modern record-keeping began in 1851, the National Weather Service in Tallahassee said Tuesday.

Water rose along the coast as Idalia’s surge came onshore. At Cedar Key, near where the storm made landfall, the tide gauge was 6.8 feet above the mean high tide, the hurricane center said.

The Alafia River near Tampa, about 155 miles south of where Idalia came ashore, reached record heights Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. In small coastal communities videos have appeared on social media of water in the streets.

As of 11:25 a.m., 330,832 customers were without power in Florida and Georgia, according to Poweroutage.us. Blackouts are expected to spread into South Carolina and “residents in these areas should be prepared for long-duration power outages,” Berg said.

Tampa International Airport was closed due to the storm, but other airports across the South are also feeling the pressure from Idalia, with 940 flights canceled, according to data from FlightAware. More than 100 were canceled to and from Atlanta, a major US transportation hub.

Idalia is the first major hurricane to hit Florida since last September. That’s when Hurricane Ian struck the western part of the state as a Category 4 storm, killing at least 150 people and causing more than $112 billion in damage.

Parts of Florida, Georgia and the eastern Carolinas are likely to see as much as 8 inches (20.3 centimeters) of rain into Thursday, with up to a foot likely in some isolated areas, the National Hurricane Center said. Flash, urban and river flooding is likely, “with considerable impacts,” it added.

A tornado watch has also been issued for parts of Florida and Georgia through 3 p.m. local time Wednesday, the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office said on social media platform X.

President Joe Biden approved federal emergency declarations for Florida, allowing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also declared an emergency Tuesday.

Idalia steered clear of most oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Still, Chevron Corp. transported non-essential personnel from its Blind Faith and Petronius platforms in the Gulf. Martin Midstream said it would temporarily cease operations at its Tampa oil terminal.

The Environmental Protection Agency is waiving summertime gasoline volatility requirements in Florida in attempt to boost fuel supply and keep prices low. The waiver allows sales of fuel with higher volatility through September 15. Higher volatility fuel can be made from a wider range of typically less costly components.

Most of the key citrus areas in central Florida shouldn’t be seriously impacted, World Weather Inc. President Drew Lerner said. Florida is the top orange-juice supplier in the US.

While some cotton crops could be damaged, along with fruits and vegetables, the main commodities of corn and soybeans should be fine, said Don Keeney, a meteorologist also with Maxar.

With assistance from Jim Wyss, Anna Jean Kaiser, Chunzi Xu, Sheela Tobben and Dayanne Sousa.