Florida residents eager to check property, assess damage
As Florida’s west coast tries to dry out, people are braving floodwaters to check on their homes after Hurricane Idalia.
Kristen Sarmiento, a property manager and real estate agent, walked through calf-deep water with her 7-year-old son on the streets of Hudson this morning to check on a rental property. She stopped short of her destination.
“The water got deep and kind of nasty,” Sarmiento said. “I couldn’t really see the bottom, so I didn’t want to keep going, because of snakes and stuff like that.”
Water was flowing slowly down the streets in Hudson, which is about 30 miles northwest of Tampa Bay. Sarmiento said it smelled like boat fuel and the water had an oily sheen on its surface. She said most houses, which are raised on stilts or blocks, did not appear to be inundated.
“I didn’t see houses where there was water through the front door. I did see three or four cars stuck and submerged under water,” she said.
Sarmiento saw people with airboats or rafts taking people who did not evacuate away from the waterfront neighborhoods along Sea Ranch and Del Mar drives. She saw at last three people being rescued, she said.
“It felt, like, pretty calm,” Sarmiento said. “It didn’t feel like a freak emergency situation. I didn’t hear anybody or see anybody injured.”
No reports of flood-related deaths or missing people
Officials sounded optimistic this evening, saying mass evacuations appear to have mitigated large loss of life.
With initial searches and rescues 75% completed, officials have yet to find anyone who died related to the flooding, said Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of Florida's emergency management agency. He also said there have been no missing person reports from local law enforcement agencies throughout the state.
Gov. DeSantis also said the tone of emergency calls made during Idalia was dramatically different from the tone of calls last year during Ian, when many people died.
"I remember when that storm was hitting. ... Panicked phone calls of people calling whose homes were filling up with water was something that was very, very ominous," DeSantis said.
Officials are working on a major disaster declaration to be submitted to FEMA tonight, the governor said.
About 250,000 power outages had been reported by 6 p.m. ET, but more than 315,000 customers' electricity was restored today. All state bridges, including the Cedar Key Bridge, have been inspected and cleared by the state Transportation Department.
None of the 10 evacuated hospitals are expected to be fully operational after a state assessment to clear patients' returns, DeSantis said.
Prison in Florida county where Idalia made landfall was not evacuated
Taylor Correctional Institution, which was in Idalia's path and is about 5 miles off the Gulf Coast, remained open ahead of landfall this morning.
"At Taylor CI, inmates are housed in hardened dorms built to withstand high winds. This was done to ensure the highest level of safety and security for those under our care and custody," the state Corrections Department said.
The facility’s structure was not damaged, and all inmates are safe and secure, the department said.
"There was no need to evacuate," the statement said.
The prison's capacity is listed at 1,282 inmates, according to the Corrections Department.
The prison is in one of the hardest-hit areas of the state. Videos and photos showed a gas station awning toppled by winds, as well as buildings and homes with their roofs ripped off.
More than 4,000 inmates were moved ahead of Idalia, including some farther inland than Taylor Correctional Institution.
Tides are rising in Charleston as Idalia heads that way
More than 450,000 customers without power in Florida and Georgia
Almost half a million homes and businesses across storm-battered Florida and Georgia are without power this evening, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us.
Florida has around 225,000 customers out, and in Georgia it's more than 232,000, according to the website. A utility customer is a home or a business, not the number of people affected by an outage.
Georgia Power said crews from Mississippi came to assist before the hurricane.
In Florida, crews traveled to the northeastern part of the state to help, the utility Florida Light and Power said.
A look at Shore Acres, Fla., flooding
Tornado reported to flip car in South Carolina
What was reported to be a tornado flipped a car in Goose Creek, north of Charleston, according to the National Weather Service.
Police said two people were inside and suffered minor injuries, NBC affiliate WCBD of Charleston reported. Emergency management officials in Berkeley County reported the incident to the weather service.
Goose Creek is around 15 miles north and slightly to the west of Charleston.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., warned that tornadoes had touched down in the Lowcountry and urged people to pay attention to weather alerts.
Tonight's supermoon could worsen flooding from Idalia
A rare “blue supermoon” rises tonight — a treat for skywatchers but a celestial occurrence that could worsen the risk of flooding from Idalia.
Beyond making for a pretty spectacle in the night sky, the moon’s gravitational pull on Earth has a profound influence on the planet’s tides. High tides during full moons and new moons can cause “major problems on some coasts, especially if weather adds high waves or a storm surge (due to low atmospheric pressure over the involved area),” according to NASA.
Idalia is moving over southeastern Georgia, about 40 miles west of Savannah. Tonight’s supermoon could make tides even higher than normal, worsening tidal flooding in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
The second full moon of the month is known as a “blue moon,” and because the moon is closer to Earth than normal, it’s dubbed a “supermoon” because it tends to appear bigger and brighter in the night sky.
Photos: Receding stormwaters surround homes in Keaton Beach, Fla.
Here's a view of damaged homes in Keaton Beach, Florida, after Hurricane Idalia passed through today. The images were captured during a flight provided by mediccorps.org.