Hurricane Idalia strengthened to a dangerous Category 4 storm Wednesday morning as it steamed toward Florida's Big Bend region
CEDAR KEY, Fla. — Hurricane Idalia strengthened to a dangerous Category 4 storm Wednesday morning as it steamed toward Florida and threatened to unleash life-threatening storm surges and rainfall, ultimately making landfall at Keaton Beach, in the state’s Big Bend region, as a Category 3 hurricane near 8 a.m. local time.
Idalia had been projected to come ashore as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of at least 130 mph in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle coastline on the Gulf of Mexico curves into the peninsula. The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia “an unprecedented event” as no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend.
At 5 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, Idalia was about 60 miles, or 96.5 kilometers, west of Cedar Key and 90 miles south of Tallahassee, the National Hurricane Center said. It was at the time moving north at 18 mph .
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