$20B Idalia Damage, Power Restoration In Big Bend, Biden To Visit FL

BIG BEND, FL — Joe Biden will travel to Florida on Saturday morning to assess damage from Hurricane Idalia — estimated to be up to $20 billion — as tens of thousands of Floridians still remained without power Friday.

Biden will visit the areas "most impacted" by the storm, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said at a White House news conference Thursday.

There are around 1,500 federal responders on the ground in Florida, including over 500 search and rescue personnel "who were ready to save lives and help people get to safety," Sherwood-Randall said.

Though flooding has receded, infrastructure has reopened across Florida, and officials are repeatedly noting that the damage wasn't as bad as expected, there are residents in the Big Bend region—where Idalia made landfall as a category 4 hurricane—who lost it all.

Speaking to the Tallahassee Democrat, Horseshoe Beach's Herman "Porkchop" Neeley, 78, explained that his home, a green ranch his father built in 1962, was one of a dozen in Horseshoe Beach that was totaled.

Before heading out the door to escape the storm and leaving his home behind, Neeley, a retired corrections officer, said he told himself, "It’s time for you to go now. Get the hell out of Dodge."

• Related: Rare Wild Flamingos Seen Across FL's West Coast After Hurricane Idalia

According to a report from Adam Kamins, a senior director at Moody’s Analytics, the preliminary cost estimate for Hurricane Idalia is between $12 billion and $20 billion of damage and lost energy.

"Despite the storm's intensity, its speed and path made it far less costly than it could have been," Kamins wrote.

In addition, tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power in the Big Bend region— meaning they could face dangerous heat Friday without air conditioning or running water.

Photos from the ground in Big Bend show workers cleaning up large trees, wood panels, and other debris. One photo shows Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on the phone with President Joe Biden while standing outside the storm storm-damaged restaurant Shrimp Boat in Horseshoe Beach. Another shows DeSantis consoling a resident whose home was heavily damaged.

More than 91,000 homes and businesses across multiple counties in northern Florida, including Madison, Hamilton, Taylor, Jefferson, Suwannee, Lafayette, and Dixie, were without power as of around 9 a.m. Friday, according to PowerOutages.us.

"That is priority number one to start getting those reconnected," DeSantis said during a Thursday news conference.

Several towns without power anticipated temperatures in the 90s or close to it Friday, and many are expecting thunderstorms that could dump a few more inches of rain onto already soggy areas.

Though it could take weeks for the final price tag of Hurricane Idalia's damage and recovery efforts, experts were already making estimates.

For comparison, Moody’s estimated that last year's Hurricane Ian caused $112.9 billion in damage. Though Ian followed a similar path to Idalia, it made landfall in Tampa — a much more populated area than the Big Bend region.

Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated area where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula, making landfall near Keaton Beach around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday.

Along the coast, some homes were submerged to near their rooftops and structures crumpled. As the eye moved inland, destructive winds shredded signs and sent sheet metal flying. Video and photos shared on the City of Cedar Key's Facebook page showed debris littering roads, trees blocking roads and storm surge enveloping roads. Storm surge there reached 8.9 feet, surpassing the 5.99 feet record set in 2016 from Hurricane Hermine, CNN reported.

"We are being ravaged," the city wrote on social media.

Photos and video shared across counties showed roads completely underwater, trees slumped over fallen power lines, and darkened traffic lights hung in flooded intersections.

Next, as Idalia rolls off into the ocean, swells were expected to affect the southeastern coast, likely causing life-threatening surf and rip current conditions into the Labor Day weekend.

This story is being updated.