{"id":2014978,"date":"2023-08-29T00:15:04","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T04:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-braces-for-tropical-storm-idalia-projected-to-become-hurricane\/"},"modified":"2023-08-29T00:18:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T04:18:13","slug":"florida-braces-for-tropical-storm-idalia-projected-to-become-hurricane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-braces-for-tropical-storm-idalia-projected-to-become-hurricane\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida prepares for Tropical Storm Idalia, expected to intensify into a hurricane."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fflorida-braces-for-tropical-storm-idalia-projected-to-become-hurricane%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2014978&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Florida Braces for Impending Hurricane Idalia<\/h2>\n<p>As of nightfall on Aug.\u2063 28, more than 5,500 Florida National Guardsmen have been activated, 20,000 linemen from dozens of states are headed south or on-call, search-and-rescue teams have assembled, and evacuations underway in 15 Gulf \u2064Coast counties.<\/p>\n<p>Navy ships have been sent \u200cto sea, classes in 38 school districts and 16 universities have been \u2062canceled, and airports, \u200bbusinesses, and homes are being shored-up\u200d and \u200bshuttered.<\/p>\n<p>All that remains is the all-too-familiar wait for 600,000 Floridians warily watching a rapidly intensifying tropical system that wasn\u2019t on any radars three days ago. It is rocketing its way north for a projected\u200c Gulf coast\u2063 landfall between Tampa and Tallahassee in less than 36 hours as a \u201cnasty\u201d Category 3 hurricane.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/desantis-lays-out-proactive-preparation-for-floridas-first-hurricane-hit-of-2023-post-5481476\"><strong>DeSantis Warns Floridians to\u200c Be &#8216;Vigilant&#8217; as Idalia Approaches<\/strong><\/a>  &#8211; 8\/27\/2023<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/desantis-lays-out-proactive-preparation-for-floridas-first-hurricane-hit-of-2023-post-5481476\"><strong>DeSantis Declares Widespread\u2063 Emergency as Hurricane Forecast to \u2064Hit Florida<\/strong><\/a>  &#8211; 8\/28\/2023<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>In anticipation of\u2062 Tropical \u200dStorm Idalia&#8217;s projected \u2062landfall as a hurricane, Alachua County residents fill sandbags at a \u200c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-braces-for-tropical-storm-idalia-projected-to-become-hurricane\/\" title=\"Florida prepares for Tropical Storm Idalia, expected to intensify into a hurricane.\">makeshift\u200c public works station<\/a> in Alachua, Fla., on Aug. 28, 2023. (Courtesy of Ray Holt)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s definitely coming. It\u2019s going to be a major hurricane. It is going\u200d to impact\u200c the state of Florida, so please take the proper precautions,\u201d Florida Gov. Ron\u200d DeSantis said during a 6 p.m.\u2063 update in the \u200dstate\u2019s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n<p>According \u2063to Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, the 5 p.m. National Hurricane Center update placed Tropical \u2063Storm\u2064 Idalia \u200babout 35 \u200dmiles southwest of the\u2064 western tip of Cuba, with maximum sustained winds near 70 miles an hour extending 150 miles from its core.<\/p>\n<p>He said the center of Idalia\u2019s eye \u201cis forecast \u2063to pass over Cuba tonight, and then reach Category 3 hurricane strength throughout Tuesday into Wednesday morning,\u201d when it will crash ashore, forecasters say, someplace along\u2064 the Big Bend region of Florida\u2019s Gulf coast.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>Don&#8217;t Underestimate the Storm Surge<\/h2>\n<p>Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Guthrie emphasized that communities along \u200cthe Gulf Coast from Tampa to the Panhandle do not need to\u2064 be\u200d in the storm\u2019s path or \u201ccone of uncertainty\u201d to be dramatically affected by its storm surge.<\/p>\n<p>While the updated projection has the system \u201cwobbling\u201d slightly to the west, that\u200c doesn\u2019t mean storm surge won\u2019t\u200b endanger \u2062coastal communities, Mr. Guthrie said, noting the latest modeling actually increases forecasted storm surges \u201cby about a foot, so we&#8217;re looking at 4-to-7 feet in some areas, 8 -to-10\u200c feet\u200b in others,\u201d and even higher surges\u200d elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going to see\u2064 portions of the Gulf \u200dCoast that will experience a 12-foot storm surge,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also expect heavy rainfall, 4-to-8 inches, with maximum amounts in\u200d some areas of as much \u200cas 12 inches\u201d with flooding \u200dpredicted in north-central Florida\u2019s Suwannee River Valley.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Guthrie said Floridians in the storm\u2019s path must prepare for \u201cisolated storm-generated tornadoes\u201d and\u200c \u201clocally damaging\u200b wind gusts\u201d to\u200c move across the Florida peninsula by midday \u200bAug. 29.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that those\u2064 who head east from low-lying Gulf coastal areas will avoid the storm surge but not \u2063the storm\u2019s\u200b rage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you&#8217;re moving into inland \u200cFlorida, \u2064you&#8217;re going to be the right front portion of that hurricane\u2014that&#8217;s what they call the \u2018dirty side\u2019\u2062 of the storm,\u201d Mr. Guthrie said. \u201cYou&#8217;re going to experience \u2062problems again. \u2063You&#8217;re going\u200b to experience power outages, so please be prepared for those power outages.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure style=\"width:640px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>The National Hurricane Center released its\u2063 forecast for Tropical \u2064Storm Idalia&#8217;s path on Monday,\u200c Aug. 28, 2023, showing\u200d the storm forming into a major, Category 3 hurricane \u200cbefore hitting \u2063somewhere along Florida&#8217;s Gulf\u2063 Coast. (NOAA\/NHC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Time \u2062Is of the Essence<\/h2>\n<p>Mr. DeSantis has declared states of emergency in 46 \u2062of Florida\u2019s 67 counties and closed toll booths on state turnpikes in central and north Florida. \u2063President Joe \u200dBiden declared the 46-county swath to be in a federal state of\u2063 emergency several \u200chours after the governor left\u200c Largo for his 6 p.m. update at the EOC in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. DeSantis said the state has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hawaii-residents-on-maui-ordered-to-evacuate-after-dam-floods-area\/\" title=\"Hawaii: Residents on Maui ordered to evacuate after dam floods area\">issued evacuation orders<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tropical-storm-henri-makes-landfall-in-r-i-threat-of-flooding-across-southern-new-england\/\" title=\"Tropical Storm Henri makes landfall in R.I., threat of flooding across southern New England\">low-lying areas<\/a> \u2064in Baker, Citrus, Franklin, Fernando, Hillsborough,\u200c Jefferson, Levy, Manatee, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota,\u2062 Taylor, \u2063Union, and Volusia counties.<\/p>\n<p>He \u2064said a dozen shelters across 13 \u200dcoastal counties have \u2064opened with 11 more set to open tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s \u200da place you can go,\u201d the\u200d governor said. \u201cYou can be safe there, or go to a friend&#8217;s house, a family&#8217;s house. You can go to hotels and do that. But you do not need to get on the road \u2063and try to drive hundreds of miles to get out of any impacts of the storm. That will not be advisable and it&#8217;s not necessary.\u200d You don&#8217;t need to leave the state. You don&#8217;t need to drive hundreds of miles. You don&#8217;t have to try to outrun the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. DeSantis cautioned \u200cthat time is now\u2063 of the essence\u200b for those in the projected path of the\u200d storm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly, you have time today and, probably, for the better part of tomorrow\u201d \u200bto finish preparing for the storm or evacuate inland to higher ground,\u200b he said, but waned time \u2063is running out with each passing minute, he said. \u201cYou\u200d are going to start seeing some impacts with winds and some nasty weather Tuesday night \u200dand, of course, we&#8217;re expecting a landfall to happen sometime on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>He said he has activated\u200b \u201cthe full 5,500 National Guardsmen available\u201d who \u201chave access to a lot of different assets, both on the ground \u2064and in the air.\u201d They have also deployed 247 Starlink\u2064 internet devices.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have another 529 Starlinks in\u2062 central Florida ready to be deployed\u200b to\u200b impact areas as the need\u2063 may arise,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The governor said the Florida Chamber of \u200cCommerce \u200dis \u201ccoordinating resources and they&#8217;re having regular calls with private sector partners to\u2064 make sure that they are prepared. Unfortunately, for a lot of our\u200b companies, this isn&#8217;t their first rodeo, so they&#8217;re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than 20,000 linemen\u201d are ready to respond as part\u200c of mutual aid pacts with \u201cmore on the way throughout the \u200cbalance of today and tomorrow,&#8221; he\u2064 noted. &#8220;This will be an important effort to get power back on very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the Florida Division of Emergency Management had received more than 300 requests from cities and counties for mutual aid resources just between noon and 6 p.m. on Aug. 28.<\/p>\n<p>Despite all \u2064that, he said, power is going\u200d to be \u2064knocked out wherever the \u200cstorm hits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would prepare to be without power. This thing comes in as a Category 3, it&#8217;s going to knock over trees, it&#8217;s going to knock over\u200b power \u200blines. It&#8217;s going\u200b to cause an interruption in service. So just be prepared for that,\u201d the governor\u2064 said.<\/p>\n<h2>Memories Of \u200bMichael, \u2063Ian<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width:640px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>One week after the passage of\u200c Hurricane Ian, Bruce Hickey walks along the waterfront, now littered\u200d with debris including\u200b shrimp boats, on San Carlos Island, Fort Myers Beach, Fla., on Oct. 5, 2022, (Rebecca Blackwell\/AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So, the\u200b stage is set\u2014or soon will be\u2014and as ready \u200bas it can be for\u2063 Idalia in whatever form \u200cit crashes ashore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, we understand how important it is by staging as many people as we do\u201d\u2064 to be ready to respond in the \u2064storm\u2019s wake,\u201d Mr.\u200b DeSantis said. \u201cI\u2064 have no doubt those folks will get to work immediately once the storm has passed and do a great job restoring [power] but there is not likely a\u200c situation where you&#8217;re not going to lose power at all if \u200byou are in\u2063 the path of this storm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The governor also\u2064 said the state\u2064 has bunkered\u200b more than 400,000 gallons of fuel \u201cand is ready to \u2062deploy any additional assets that are\u200c expected over the next few days,\u201d especially\u2064 for Gulf Coast\u200c gas stations.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width:640px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>More than 53 drivers wait in line for to fill up with gas ahead of Hurricane Idalia in a line that stretches around a Sam&#8217;s Club in Gainesville, Fla., on Au<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over 5,500 Florida National Guardsmen activated, 20,000 linemen en route, search-and-rescue teams assembled, evacuations in 15 Gulf Coast counties. Navy ships deployed, classes canceled in 38 school districts and 16 universities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":2014979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2014978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2014979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2014978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2014978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2014978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}