The National Hurricane Center upgraded Tropical Storm Idalia to a Hurricane early Tuesday as it barrels towards the Gulf coast of Florida carrying winds of up to 135 miles per hour, less than a year after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian.
The NHC said Idalia, which is now located off the northern tip of western Cuba, is travelling at around 14 miles per hour as it moves toward the Gulf of Mexico. It is expected to accelerate into "an extremely dangerous major hurricane" before making landfall on Wednesday and steaming towards the Carolina coastline the following day.
"A faster motion toward the north and north-northeast is expected through early Wednesday while Idalia approaches the Gulf coast of Florida," the NHC said. "A turn toward the northeast and east-northeast is forecast late Wednesday and Thursday, bringing the center of Idalia near or along the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas".
Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 85 mph (140 km/h) with higher gusts. Rapid intensification is expected before landfall, and Idalia is forecast to be a major hurricane when it reaches the Gulf coast of Florida Wednesday morning," the NHC said in its latest update.
Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said late Monday that he fears Idalia could accelerate into a Category 4 hurricane, the second-highest on the scale, by the time it makes landfall.
“People need to expect, even though they are well off outside of the cone, that we are going to have power outages, we are going to have trees down on power lines,” Guthrie said. “You need to be prepared for that.”
Florida Governor Ron DeStantis called for the mobilization of thousands of National Guard troops in preparation for Idalia's landing on Wednesday, and increased his 'state of emergency' order to include 46 Florida counties.
“All Floridians, you need to be executing your plans,” DeSantis said during Monday during a press conference in Tallahassee. “This is going to be a major hurricane. This is going to be a powerful hurricane.”
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