USA Now! Hurricane Idalia in Florida! The city is going under water!People are hiding in the tunnels

Hurricane Idalia latest: ’Catastrophic’ hurricane hits Florida - with homes submerged, 160,000 without power and hundreds of flights cancelled Florida’s Big Bend is one of the last truly natural places in the state. It’s not Disney World. It’s not South Beach. This is where people go to hunt alligators, fish for tarpon and search for scallops in the shallow waters. On Wednesday, it became the bull’s-eye of a major hurricane. Hurricane Idalia now has maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, with stronger gusts, making it a Category 1 hurricane as the center of the storm is crossing into southern Georgia, according to the latest National Hurricane Center update. Idalia is about 15 miles south-southeast of Valdosta, Georgia, moving north-northeast at 20 mph. Although Idalia will weaken further while the center is inland, it is still expected to be a hurricane through this afternoon or evening while moving across southeastern Georgia and southern South Carolina. “High water levels continue along the Gulf Coast,” the hurricane center said. It made landfall earlier Wednesday morning along Florida’s western Big Bend region as a strong Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 mph. It was a Category 4 storm in the hours ahead of landfall. 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 region. When Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning it had maximum sustained winds near 125 mph (205 kph). The low-lying marsh area faced a predicted storm surge of up to 15 feet (4.5 meters). There are populated areas in the region, including Gainesville, where the University of Florida canceled classes through Wednesday. More than 900 flights were cancelled by US airlines as a result of Hurricane Idalia as of this afternoon, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Several airlines including Southwest, Delta, JetBlue, American Airlines and United cancelled flights and issued advice to passengers to make changes to travel plans. Tampa International Airport and other regional airports suspended commercial operations on Tuesday ahead of Idalia’s arrival. We’ve just heard that one death has been attributed to the conditions caused by Hurricane Idalia. According to Florida’s Highway Patrol, a driver in Pasco County - part of the storm-stricken Big Bend area of the state - lost control of his vehicle and struck a tree this morning at about 0615 local time The driver’s injuries were fatal. So far, no other deaths have been confirmed, although that may change as the scale of the destruction becomes more clear throughout the course of the day. We have had some damage from the winds, downed trees, limbs, those types of things. But what we are mainly concerned with is the same thing that you’re experiencing up in Crystal River. We have flooding, extensive flooding along our coast right now. We have 126 miles of waterfront land here in Tampa, and that is only going to rise. We are at low tide. The tide is coming in. We expect that king high tide around noon to 1 (p.m. ET) and that’s going to bring in several additional feet of water,» The time to prepare is over and a dire situation is unfolding along Florida’s Gulf Coast as Category 3 Hurricane Idalia continues to rapidly intensify in the Gulf of Mexico. Catastrophic, life-threatening storm surge and destructive winds will pound the state’s Big Bend region as the monster storm nears the coast just hours away from landfall. A storm surge of up to 16 feet in some spots is likely, disastrous winds of up to 130 mph, and a risk of significant flooding are all in the forecast as Hurricane Idalia is fueled by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Dozens of counties in Florida are under a state of emergency and evacuations have been ordered in at least 30 counties as fears grow that walls of water will be forced inland as Hurricane Idalia makes landfall. “Storm surge of this magnitude is not something we’ve ever seen in this part of Florida in any of our lifetimes,“ DeSantis said during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “So, please, please take the appropriate precautions.“ However, the time to take those precautions has passed as the effects of Hurricane Idalia are being felt from the Florida Panhandle to the Fort Myers area as the storm slams the state’s Big Bend region. With triple-digit wind speeds imminent as the eyewall approaches the Florida Coast, a rare Extreme Wind Warning has been issued for parts of the state’s Big Bend area.