200K still without power in Florida, Georgia after Idalia sweeps through

More than 200,000 customers in Florida and Georgia are still without power after Hurricane Idalia hit earlier this week, leaving downed power poles and debris in its path of destruction. 

As of around 1:20 p.m. Thursday, Florida had the most reported outages at 117,258, followed by Georgia with 86,316, according to outage-tracking website PowerOutage.us.

Florida’s outages have significantly decreased over the past 24 hours, down from around 444,000 customers Wednesday night. 

Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 3 hurricane, bringing winds of up to 125 mph and life-threatening storm surges to several parts of the Gulf Coast. 

The storm then churned towards southeastern Georgia by Wednesday afternoon, pounding the region with rain and wind as it was downgraded to a tropical storm.

Tropical storm and storm surge warnings have been lifted for these areas as the cleanup process begins to remove downed power poles, trees and other debris from damaged homes.

By Wednesday night, the storm moved northeast over southern South Carolina before shifting to the coast of North Carolina on its way to the Atlantic Ocean, the National Hurricane Center said. 

North Carolina currently has an estimated 6,343 outages, while South Carolina has 5,943, according to PowerOutage.us. 

In Charleston, the storm surge reached 9 feet Wednesday evening, marking the fifth-highest peak tide since records began in 1899, according to the National Weather Service of Charleston. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) reported at least one “unconfirmed” fatality Wednesday. The Florida Highway Patrol said two people died in weather-related car crashes, while a man in Georgia was killed after a tree fell on him, according to local police. 

Idalia is the most intense storm to hit the Big Bend region in nearly a century, sparking concerns the area may take longer to recover from destructive flooding and ecological damage.