THE GUARDIAN
Hurricane Idalia struck northern Florida on Wednesday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain. It made landfall near Keaton Beach on Florida’s Big Bend during the morning as a high-end category 3 hurricane, bringing sustained winds speeds near 125mph (200km/h) and a storm surge of 16ft along Florida’s north-west coastline.
Due to very warm sea surface temperatures, the storm strengthened rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico to category 4 status, before weakening to category 3 as it made landfall. It brought extensive flooding as it passed through and damaged power lines, leaving thousands without electricity. The Florida highway patrol attributed two deaths from car crashes during heavy rainfall to the hurricane.
On Wednesday afternoon, Idalia had weakened into a tropical storm as it descended through Georgia and South Carolina. The storm moved across the coast of North Carolina through Thursday, bringing heavy rain and coastal flooding, before gradually clearing to the Atlantic on Thursday night.
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