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Rescue and repair efforts were in full force Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend area, where Idalia shredded homes, ripped off roofs, snapped tall trees, and turned streets into rivers.įlorida Gov. “It takes a long time to get back to that point.” Some of the trees are 40 to 50 years old, he noted. I had to turn around three times, just because roads were blocked off,” Roberson said.Ĭhris Exum, a farmer in the south Georgia town of Quitman, estimates that he lost half or more of his pecan crop from Idalia, which he said left “a wall of green” with downed trees and limbs.
Roads remained blocked by tree trunks and downed powerlines and traffic lights were still blacked out at major intersections. On one street, he said, a tree had fallen on nearly every house. And we’re responding that way.”ĭesmond Roberson of Valdosta was shocked when he took a drive through the city of 55,000 with a friend to check out the damage. “But if you were in the path, it was devastating. “We’re fortunate this storm was a narrow one, and it was fast moving and didn’t sit on us,” Kemp told a news conference Thursday in Atlanta. The storm had 90 mph (145 kph) winds when it made a direct hit on Valdosta on Wednesday, Georgia Gov. The state’s highway patrol reported earlier that two people were killed in separate weather-related crashes just hours before Idalia made landfall.Ī man in Valdosta, Georgia, died when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another tree out of the road, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said.Īs many as a half-million customers were without power at one point in Florida and Georgia as the storm ripped down utility poles. Six-foot-high watermarks stained walls still standing, marking the extent of the storm surge.įlorida officials said there was one hurricane-related death in the Gainesville area, but didn’t release any details. They frequently stopped to hug amid tears. Residents of the tiny town, most of whom evacuated inland during the storm, helped each other clear debris or collect belongings - high school trophies, photos, records, china. I’m a lucky one, a few limbs on my house. “It’s probably 50 or 60 homes here, totally destroyed. “The town, I mean, it’s devastated,” Nobles said. “It was a little heart-wrenching and depressing,” Firestine said.Īt Horseshoe Beach in central Big Bend, James Nobles returned to find his home had survived the storm, though many his neighbors weren’t as lucky. An entire building belonging to the 12-unit Faraway Inn her family owns had been wiped away. When she drove back onto the island hours after the storm passed, her heart sank.
“My plan today is to go around and find anything that’s in the debris that is salvageable and clean out my storage shed," said Aimee Firestine of Cedar Key, an island located in the remote Big Bend area where Idalia roared ashore with 125 mph (201 kph) winds Wednesday.įirestine rode out Idalia about 40 minutes inland. – Florida and Georgia residents living along Hurricane Idalia's path of destruction on Thursday picked through piles of rubble where homes once stood, threw tarps over ripped-apart roofs and gingerly navigated streets left underwater or clogged with fallen trees and dangerous electric wires.
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