One dead as Hurricane Idalia blows through Georgia as tropical storm

One person died in Georgia as Hurricane Idalia weakened into a tropical storm after hitting Florida on Wednesday.

Idalia clocked maximum sustained winds nearing 200km/h as it made landfall near Keaton Beach in Florida at 7.45am, crossing into Georgia with top winds of 144km/h before weakening to a tropical storm with speeds of 96km/h overnight.

High winds shredded signs, blew off roofs, sent sheet metal flying and snapped tall trees.

One man was killed in Valdosta, Georgia, when a tree fell on him as he was trying to clear another tree out of the road, said Lowndes County sheriff Ashley Paulk.

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Two others, including a sheriff’s deputy, were injured when the tree fell.

No hurricane-related deaths were officially confirmed in Florida, but Florida Highway Patrol reported two people dying in separate weather-related crashes hours before Idalia made landfall.

The storm brought strong winds to Savannah, Georgia, as it made its way toward the Carolinas and was forecast to move along the coast before heading out into the Atlantic Ocean.

The National Weather Service said Idalia spawned a tornado that briefly touched down in Charleston, South Carolina, where two people suffered minor injuries as the winds sent a car flying according to authorities and eyewitness video.

Along South Carolina’s coast, North Myrtle Beach, Garden City, and Edisto Island all reported ocean water flowing over sand dunes and spilling on to beachfront streets.

In Charleston, storm surge from Idalia topped a seawall, sending ankle-deep ocean water into the streets and neighbourhoods where horse-drawn carriages pass million-dollar homes and the famous open-air market.

Preliminary data showed the Wednesday evening high tide reached just over 2.8 metres, about 90 centimetres above normal and the fifth-highest reading in Charleston Harbour since records were first kept in 1899.

Florida had feared the worst while still recovering from last year’s Hurricane Ian, which hit the heavily populated Fort Myers area, leaving 149 dead in the state.

Unlike that storm, Idalia blew into a very lightly inhabited area known as Florida’s “nature coast,” one of the state’s most rural regions that lies far from crowded metropolises or busy tourist areas and features millions of acres of undeveloped land.

In Florida, state officials, 5,500 National Guardsman and rescue crews were in search-and-recovery mode, inspecting bridges, clearing toppled trees and looking for anyone in distress.

Because of the remoteness of the Big Bend area, search teams may need more time to complete their work compared with past hurricanes in more urban areas, said Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Department of Emergency Management.

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia “an unprecedented event” since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend.

The White House confirmed president Joe Biden had called the governors of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday and told them their states had his administration’s full support.

Officials in Bermuda warned that Idalia could hit the island early next week as a tropical storm.

Bermuda was being lashed by the outer bands of Hurricane Franklin on Wednesday, a category 2 storm that was on track to pass near the island in the north Atlantic Ocean.