Danger Isn't Over From Hurricane Idalia, Says National Weather Service

FLORIDA — The National Weather Service is warning that the "king tide" could produce 6 to 9 more feet of storm surge along Florida's Gulf Coast Wednesday.

A King Tide is a non-scientific term people often use to describe exceptionally high tides. These higher-than-normal tides typically occur during a new or full moon, which will occur Wednesday night. The King Tide is expected to impact the Florida Gulf Coast around 3 p.m. Wednesday and could bringing life-threatening storm surge.

While the hurricane warning has been canceled, a tropical storm warning has been issued for coastal Citrus, coastal Hernando, coastal Hillsborough, coastal Levy, inland Manatee, inland Pasco, Pinellas and Sumter counties.

A storm surge warning and tropical storm warning are in effect for coastal Citrus, coastal Hernando, coastal Hillsborough, coastal Levy, coastal Manatee, coastal Pasco, coastal Sarasota, inland Citrus and Pinellas counties.

A tropical storm warning and storm surge watch are in effect for coastal Charlotte and Lee counties. And a tropical storm warning is in effect for DeSoto, Hardee, inland Charlotte, inland Hernando, inland Hillsborough, inland Lee, inland Levy, inland Manatee, inland Pasco, inland Sarasota, Polk and Sumter counties.

Areas across West Central and Southwest Florida should expect surge levels to remain nearly steady through the day as an onshore wind keeps water inundating normally dry areas up along the coast.

There has been major flooding of roads in neighborhoods along the Alafia River in Riverview as the river rises 6.5 feet over its banks. More flooding is expected along the Alafia River during the King Tide.

Additionally, according to the NWS, tropical storm-force winds remain possible as outer rain bands from Idalia move across the region. There is currently heavy downpour impact east Hillsborough and Polk counties, prompting the NWS to keep the flood watch in effect as rivers continue rising above flood stage and flood low-lying areas with poor drainage.

Potential impacts from the main storm surge event are still unfolding across West Central and Southwest Florida, and could have devastating impacts that could bring more flooding accentuated by powerful battering waves, said the NWS.

Structural damage to buildings, with many washing away, is a possibility and the damage could be compounded by floating debris.

Some locations may be uninhabitable for an extended period, including:

• Near-shore escape routes and secondary roads were washed out or severely flooded. Flood control systems and barriers may become stressed.
• Extreme beach erosion. New shoreline cuts are possible.
• Massive damage to marinas, docks, boardwalks and piers. Numerous small craft have broken away from their moorings, with many lifted onshore and stranded.

Floodwaters can enter some structures or weaken foundations. Some streets and parking lots have flooded as storm drains and retention ponds overflow, making driving conditions hazardous.

Potential impacts from the main wind event are now unfolding across West Central and Southwest Florida as well. The NWS said residents should remain well sheltered from dangerous winds and there could be some damage to roofing and siding materials, along with damage to porches, awnings, carports and sheds.

In some locations, roofs have peeled off buildings, chimneys have toppled, mobile homes, especially those that are unanchored, have been pushed off foundations or overturned, large trees have toppled and shallow-rooted trees have been knocked over, boats have pulled away from their moorings and moving vehicles have been blown off roads.

A few buildings have experienced window, door and garage door failures, and fences and road signs have blown over.

The NWS said some roads are impassable due to large debris in both urban and heavily wooded areas.

A few bridges, causeways and access routes are impassable as well.

There are scattered power and communications outages that are more prevalent in areas with above-ground lines.

Duke Energy said there are more than 18,000 customers in Pinellas County without power. View the Duke Energy Outage Map to see where power outages are occurring and estimated restoration times.

Tampa Electric is reporting only 1,206 outages. Residents can sign up for TECO outage notifications or view the outage map to report and track outages in their neighborhoods.

AT&T's FirstNet Response Operations Group has been working around the clock and has liaisons engaged with local and federal agencies, said AT&T Communications Director Rosie Montalvo.

"The team is currently staged in Central Florida with communication equipment ready to deploy to areas in need as soon as it’s safe to do so," she said.

To help residents stay connected, Montalvo offered a few post-storm communication tips for consumers, regardless of their carrier:

If you lose power:

• Set your device on power-save mode and turn the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off to extend your battery life
• Avoid using apps that can drain your battery

Be prepared for a high call volume:

Keep non-emergency calls to a minimum when possible.

"After a storm, it’s not uncommon to want to check up on one another. To help keep lines available for emergency calls, have one point of contact outside of the storm area and ask them to update family and friends for you," Montalvo said.

And consider texting instead of calling. Texting requires fewer network resources and may go through faster if the network is congested due to high call volume.

More information about AT&T’s readiness for Hurricane Idalia, click here.

The National Weather Service warned that there is still the potential of tornadoes developing in West Central and Southwest Florida.

For those who have plans to travel, the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport will reopen at 3 p.m. and Tampa International Airport will resume operations at 4 p.m.

If you have taken post-storm photos you'd like to share, please email them to dann.white@patch.com.