Hurricane Idalia Latest: 2 Reported Dead, 257K Without Power

FLORIDA — As Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast, residents braced for flooding, power outages, and damage.

Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. After reaching Category 4 status, it made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph.

More than an hour later, it remained a Category 2 hurricane with top winds of 110 mph. It was expected to remain a hurricane while crossing Florida and Georgia before the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a tropical storm shortly before 5 p.m.

A 40-year-old man in Florida, whose name has not been publicly identified, died in Pasco County early Wednesday morning, after losing control of his vehicle while driving in the hurricane, according to an NBC News report citing the Florida Highway Patrol.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers said a 59-year-old man from Gainesville, Florida, was also killed on Wednesday after veering into a ditch and hitting a tree while driving, ABC affiliate WCJR reported.

At a 12:30 p.m. briefing, Gov. Ron DeSantis said those deaths can't officially be attributed to the storm until authorities and medical examiners weigh in.

At the briefing, DeSantis also said crews would be out Wednesday working to clear roads, starting in north Florida and working their way south. Damage assessments are expected Thursday, DeSantis said.

Florida Power Outages By County

Nearly 257,000 Floridians were without power shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday, including more than 27,700 in Pinellas County, 2,500 in Sarasota, 5,300 in Pasco, 2,000 in Manatee, and 942 in Hillsborough, according to the outage tracking site PowerOutage.us.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Florida counties with the highest percentage of customers without power were in the northern part of the state where Idalia made landfall. Nearly 32,000 customers were without power in Leon County, home to Florida's capital of Tallahassee.

As of 5 p.m., other counties with the most power outages included:

• Columbia: 28,648
• Suwanee: 24,681
• Taylor: 13,393
• Madison: 11,467
• Levy: 11,408
• Alachua: 10,277
• Dixie: 9,301
• Jefferson: 8,869
• Wakulla: 8,340

Hurricane Idalia Flooding

The hurricane turned streets into rivers in Tampa and swamped the Florida capital of Tallahassee, where power went out well before the center of the storm arrived.

Storm surge could rise as high as 16 feet in some places.

St. Petersburg police shared photos and video of extensive flooding early Wednesday, including of submerged cars and streets and parking lots entirely underwater.

"Please stay home and don’t try to drive in flooded areas," police said on X, formerly known as Twitter, just after 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Clearwater police also shared photos and video of local flooding, as all access to Clearwater Beach has been forbidden. Footage shows docks and many roads underwater.

Other footage shows police officers leading a convoy of city workers to help clean up tree debris from the roads.

The U.S. Coast Guard was on standby and had pre-positioned 15 aircraft and more than 25 cutters and 20 flood response teams prepared to respond in the wake of the storm, Rear Admiral Douglas Schofield said. Crews flew over western Florida up to the Big Bend area and made call-outs to mariners to seek shelter. Crews were ready to launch aircraft for urgent maritime search and rescue in the Tampa and Big Bend areas as the storm passed, Schofield said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.