Tropical Storm Idalia thrashes North Carolina as parts of Florida start an arduous recovery

Tropical Storm Idalia keeps pounding the Southeast’s Atlantic coast, prompting flash flood warnings in North Carolina while parts of Florida’s west coast grapple with “significant damage” from the most powerful hurricane to slam its Big Bend region in more than a century. Thousands of homes are damaged in Florida – some with shredded walls and roofs, others with murky, waist-high floodwater that officials warn could be dangerous for days to come. But while some deaths were reported, the devastation was not as immense as it could have been after the Category 3 hurricane pummeled Florida before tearing through southern Georgia and South Carolina. Some have credited improved forecasting for spurring residents to evacuate the right places well ahead of time. The National Hurricane Center issued its first Idalia forecast Saturday – when the storm was near Cozumel, Mexico – and projected a US landfall within 10 miles of where it would strike five days later, near Keaton Beach, Florida. By then, at least 28 Florida counties had issued evacuation orders. “These forecasts were pretty doggone accurate, particularly compared to what happened with Hurricane Ian – where we went in a matter of 48 hours to potentially having a Big Bend impact, then all of a sudden migrating all the way down to southwest Florida,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday. No hurricane-related deaths had been reported, DeSantis said, even as Florida Highway Patrol reported two storm-related traffic deaths Wednesday. A low death toll was “probably something that most people would not have bet on four or five days ago, knowing how strong the storm was going to get,” DeSantis said. “So my hat’s off to the people on the ground there who did a good job.” Still, dozens of people had to be rescued from perilous floodwaters brought on by the double whammy of torrential rain and walls of seawater crashing onto land. And rescue operations will continue, the governor said. And Idalia’s isn’t done, even as its center pushes out into the Atlantic Ocean. Some coastal areas far from the landfall zone on Thursday face the risk of isolated tornadoes and flooding: Water along North Carolina could rise up to 4 feet, the National Hurricane Center said. “The combination of storm surge and tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the forecast center said. Between 2 and 5 inches of rain have deluged parts of southeastern North Carolina, including the Wilmington area, where a flash flood warning was in effect early Thursday, the National Weather Service said. Parts of Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties were under the warning. ‘A life-changing event for some’ The storm has wreaked havoc as it smashed into Florida’s Big Bend area – between the panhandle and peninsula – near Keaton Beach, ripping off roofs and flooding homes as it pushed feet of seawater onshore along a wide swath of the state’s west coast. Many places that bore the brunt “don’t necessarily have the resources” to handle such a powerful hurricane, said US Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who represents a South Florida district and used to lead the state’s Division of Emergency Management. “There are some communities that may never look the same and others that will get rebuilt that will look slightly different,” he told CNN Wednesday night. “This is a life-changing event for some of these counties.” But some were grateful the impact was not more severe. “We got buzz-sawed along the side, and quite honestly, while the effects could have been worse, we definitely took it on the chin,” said Administrator Mike Carballa of Pasco County, north of Tampa, which saw homes and streets inundated. Officials urged thousands to evacuate before storm surge caused record-high water levels from Tampa Bay through the Big Bend. The storm also downed power lines and flooded parts of Georgia and South Carolina, including Charleston. In Charleston, the storm tore down trees and led officials to close flooded roads, police said. Water also breached dunes at South Carolina’s Edisto Beach, the National Weather Service said. There was “one unconfirmed fatality” in Florida in the storm’s aftermath, DeSantis said Wednesday. Two men were killed in separate crashes Wednesday morning during severe storm conditions, Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Gaskins said earlier, noting both deaths were weather-related. It’s unclear whether DeSantis was referring to one of these crashes. CNN has sought clarification. Another death was reported in Georgia’s Lowndes County, where a man died after a tree fell on him as he cut a tree on a highway, Sheriff Ashley Paulk told CNN.