Heavy flooding turned Fort Myers roads into rivers on Tuesday as “life-threatening” Hurricane Idalia slammed into Florida’s southwest coast – fueled by a rare blue supermoon.
The outer track of the major Category 2 hurricane hit the metro area, bringing with it powerful storm surges that have flooded residential streets with knee-high water.
Forecasters warned that Wednesday night’s blue supermoon is also likely to cause higher-than-normal tides, meaning some areas of the state can expect storm surges to reach 15 feet.
“I would say the timing is pretty bad for this one,” said meteorologist Brian Haines of the National Weather Service office in Charleston, SC.
Although Idalia is still more than 100 miles from the coast, the tide has washed into the highway and canals are full.
A horrifying video shows high-speed winds tore through palm trees and launched small sandstorms as thick, dark clouds moved across the sky.
Winds are expected to reach above 120 mph when Idalia makes landfall by midday Wednesday. full of stories
Winds are expected to reach over 120 mph.Storyful
At 11 p.m., Idalia had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph and was moving north at 18 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
The meteorologist said big waves and rip currents along the East Coast “continue”.
And the bad weather is only expected to accelerate — including reaching upwards of 120 mph winds — as the catastrophic storm moves to make landfall between 6 a.m. and noon Wednesday.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has urged residents in low-lying communities to evacuate to higher ground in anticipation of devastating flash flooding.
“Time is running out very quickly,” he said at an evening news briefing.
Storm surge in some areas of Florida is expected to reach 15 feet. Storytelling
He declared a state of emergency Monday for 46 of the state’s 67 counties as thousands of National Guard soldiers were deployed to the area ahead of the storm’s impact.
The NHC said the center of Idalia will likely hit the Florida coast somewhere in the Big Bend region, roughly between the inland cities of Tallahassee and Gainesville.
No major hurricane on record has ever passed through the area, making Idalia “an unprecedented event,” according to the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.
A blue supermoon is expected to only make matters worse on Wednesday. The moon will never actually be blue. The term simply refers to the second full moon of the month — the only one this year — and the fact that it appears larger than usual in the sky. The occurrence is so rare that the phrase, “Once in a blue moon” comes from it, according to Atlas Obscura.
After making landfall in the Big Bend region, Idalia is then forecast to cross the Florida peninsula and drench southern Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday.
Hurricane Idalia is expected to hit Florida between 6 a.m. and noon Wednesday.AP
Idalia passed over western Cuba, where it destroyed homes and flooded villages. AFP via Getty Images
Idalia developed from a tropical storm into a hurricane early Tuesday, a day after passing over western Cuba, where it damaged homes and flooded villages.
The storm is expected to be the fourth major hurricane to hit Florida in the past seven years, following Irma in 2017, Michael in 2018 and Ian, which peaked at Category 5, in September.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
