As Idalia bears down on Florida’s northwest coast, its windspeeds intensified to more than 100 miles an hour.
Today, the National Hurricane Center warned some could see a storm surge of up to 15 feet if the hurricane hits at high tide, wreaking the worst damage Governor Ron DeSantis said this region has seen in more than a century during a press conference Tuesday.
“In this part of the state, you really got to go back to the late 1800s to find a storm of this magnitude that will enter where this one looks like it's going to enter tomorrow. So we don't really have a historical analog in anybody's memory,” said Governor DeSantis.
The Keys and Fort Myers Beach are already seeing flooding.
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More than a dozen counties are under a mandatory evacuation order.
Final preparations are underway, for those boarding up and for those who will soon rush in to help.
“The Red Cross is ready to help with more than 400 Red Cross disaster responders and truckloads prepositioned in Florida,” said Alan Ruiz.
Ruiz said North Texans will be among the volunteers to bring in technology equipment, provide meals and offer shelter to displaced Floridians.
They join others from the Lone Star state, including responders from Texas A&M Task Force 1 and the Texas Baptist Men, who stand ready to help.
It’s part of an effort that’s brought people from states like Missouri, Virginia and New Jersey and placed more than 40,000 line crews on standby ahead of the storm’s predicted landfall early Wednesday morning.
