Idalia brings 'life-threatening' flooding to the Carolinas as a Tropical storm: Live - The Independent

Hurricane Idalia live tracker: Tropical Storm Idalia slams the Carolinas while Florida surveys aftermath | The Independent

Idalia slams the Carolinas as tropical storm while Florida surveys deadly hurricane aftermath: Live

Hurricane Idalia made landfall near Keaton Beach, Florida, on Wednesday morning before charting path inland through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina

Louise Boyle,

Stuti Mishra,

Rachel Sharp,
Oliver O'Connell Comments

Tropical storm Idalia has left three people dead across Florida and Georgia as it continues to hammer North Carolina with heavy flooding.

Idalia ploughed into Florida as a Category 3 Hurricane on Wednesday morning, before losing power as it nland through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Florida Highway Patrol said that two men were killed in two separate weather-related road accidents on Wednesday morning in the Sunshine State. Meanwhile in Georgia, a man was killed by a falling tree while he was trying to clear another tree off a highway.

Florida began its recovery efforts after the storm passed through on Wednesday, with Governor Ron DeSantis warning looters that they could be shot if they try to target affected communities.

As of 5am ET on Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said that flooding due to heavy rains and strong winds would continue to ravage coastal North Carolina throughout today. Idalia is then expected to chart its path out into the Atlantic later on Thursday.
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Tropical Storm Idalia - the latest

Tropical Storm Idalia is continuing to lose power as it moves into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, the National Weather Service reported.

However areas of flash, urban and moderate river flooding, with considerable impacts, are expected from eastern South Carolina through eastern North Carolina today.

Heavy rainfall is expected across the North Carolina coast through this afternoon but then conditions will begin to improve. There will be two to four inches of rain and up to five inches in some spots.

Coastal flooding is also expected in North Carolina today along with tropical storm force winds in parts of the US southeast coast.
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In pictures: Florida residents inspect aftermath of, and damage from, Hurricane Idalia

Lily Gumos, 11, of St. Pete Beach, Florida kayaks with her French bulldog along Blind Pass Road and 86th Avenue

A man walks his motorcycle to Desoto Park after attempting to ride through an impassable South Bermuda Boulevard at Palmetto Beach

A boat is stranded near to a road in the town of Jena, after Hurricane Idalia made landfall near Keaton Beach, Florida

Chad Hinchman, 40, walks through one of his rental Airbnb properties on Hibiscus Avenue South, Pasadena, which flooded overnight

Makatla Ritchter (L) and her mother, Keiphra Line wade through flood waters after having to evacuate their home when the flood waters from Hurricane Idalia inundated it on 30 August 2023 in Tarpon Springs, Florida

Ken Kruse looks out at the flood waters from Hurricane Idalia surrounding his apartment complex in Tarpon Springs
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Why stormy weather this week could make or break Ron DeSantis

It’s no secret at this point that Ron DeSantis’s image has taken a hit since he hit his peak in November 2022 after he cruised to a nearly 20-point re-election as Florida governor in an otherwise dim year from Republicans. His lacklustre performance on the presidential campaign trail has led to many people questioning whether he can go the distance against Donald Trump in the GOP presidential primary.

And it looks like he might literally be facing even rougher waters than he already has weathered. This last week, a white gunman killed shot and killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville. In response, Mr DeSantis said that “the shooting, based on the manifesto that they discovered from the scumbag who did this, was racially motivated. He was targeting people based on their race.”

But when he attended a vigil in Jacksonville, a historically Republican city that recently elected a Democratic mayor, the residents of the city were not having it and they heckled the governor.

Mr DeSantis has staked his claim on making Florida a place where “wokeness” comes to die and has passed laws restricting how race is taught in classrooms in the state. Others Black leaders, including some Black Republican members of Congress, have also criticised the state’s middle school history curriculum, which says that enslaved people “developed skills” that could be “applied for personal benefit.”

Read more from Eric Garcia on how Hurricane Idalia will impact Ron DeSantis’s precarious political position.

Why Hurricane Idalia could derail the 2024 campaign

Florida governor is facing negative headlines with Hurricane Idalia and the shooting in Jacksonville, but he has a chance to get good coverage too
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Map shows path of Hurricane Idalia

Where is Hurricane Idalia now? Tropical storm system mapped

Storm is zeroing in on Carolinas after leaving trail of devastation in northern Florida
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Biden declares state of emergency in South Carolina over Idalia

On Thursday morning, President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in South Carolina over storm Idalia.

“Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that an emergency exists in the State of South Carolina and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Idalia beginning on August 29, 2023, and continuing,” he said in a declaration released by the White House. “The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe. “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures (Category B), including direct Federal assistance, under the Public Assistance program will be provided in 23 counties and emergency protective measures (Category B), limited to direct Federal assistance, under the Public Assistance program will be provided in the remaining 23 counties. “Mr. Brian F. Schiller of FEMA has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas.”
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National Hurricane Center gives update on Idalia

“Tropical Storm #Idalia Advisory 19A: Heavy Rainfall and Life-Threatening Flash Flooding Continues In Portions of Eastern North Carolina. Winds Increasing Over the Outer Banks and Pamlico Sound,” the agency tweeted.
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Hurricanes are getting stronger. Here’s why

As the global average temperature increases, largely due to the carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, the ocean is taking a major hit.

The ocean has absorbed 90 per cent of warming in recent decades and all that extra heat is driving historically high water temperatures.

Warmer waters supercharge tropical cyclones with more heavy rainfall and storm surge as they come ashore.

While the frequency of hurricanes of tropical storms is not increasing, the chance that they become stronger, more destructive systems has increased by about 8 per cent per decade in the past 40 years, according to climate scientists.

The proportion of Category 4 and 5 tropical cyclones is projected to increase around the world in the coming decades due to human-caused warming, according to the latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from 1 June to 30 November, is forecast to be above average this year.
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Satellite images show before and after of Hurricane Idalia

A satellite view shows Ozello before and after flooding caused by Hurricane Idalia

A satellite view shows Ozello before flooding caused by Hurricane Idalia in Florida, U.S., January 12, 2023

A satellite view shows Ozello after flooding caused by Hurricane Idalia in Florida, U.S., on 30 August 2023

A combination picture shows satellite images of Crystal River before and after flooding
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Watch: DeSantis warns against looting in aftermath of Hurricane Idalia
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Voices: The hidden crisis looming behind Hurricane Idalia

Skylar Baker-Jordan writes:

Working in the mortgage industry in the 2010s, I knew three things to be true about Florida real estate transactions: closings do not require an attorney, it has a decent homebuyer assistance program, and homeowners’ insurance was becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. This is bad news for a state that already has homeowners’ insurance rates four times higher than the national average, making it the most expensive state for homeowner’s insurance.

Read on...

The hidden crisis looming behind Hurricane Idalia

Believing in climate change – with all the scientific evidence to support it – is a bridge too far for Ron DeSantis