Idalia has weakened to a tropical storm after roaring into Florida's Big Bend region as a powerful hurricane.
According to international media reports, Idalia split trees in half, ripped roofs off hotels and turned small cars into boats on Wednesday before sweeping into Georgia as a still-powerful storm that flooded roadways and sent residents running for higher ground.
After coming ashore, Idalia made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 am as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 205 kph.
It had weakened to a tropical storm with winds of 113 kph by Wednesday afternoon.
As the eye moved inland, high winds shredded signs, blew off roofs, sent sheet metal flying and snapped tall trees.
But as of midday on Wednesday, there were no confirmed deaths in Florida, although fatal traffic accidents in two counties may end up being storm-related, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said.
