Packing 125-mph sustained winds and promising catastrophe, Hurricane Idalia made landfall as a dangerous Category 3 storm around 7:45 a.m. Aug. 31 in the Big Bend of Florida, where the peninsula bends into the state’s panhandle, the National Weather Service reported.
The storm had reached Category 4 status an hour or so before landfall, where state and county officials spent two days pleading with people to evacuate to higher ground, often to no avail.
Idalia was pounding Florida’s west coast the morning of Aug. 31 and as of press time was threatening to deliver life-threatening storm surge of more than 12 feet in some places.
The Keys were spared Idalia’s worst impacts, facing a windy, squally day with the Southernmost Point buoy being sloshed per usual and street flooding in Key West near Higgs Beach, which is expected during tropical storm conditions.
Offshore, Sand Key reef location topped the peak gust reports on Aug. 29 with 61-mph winds, according to the National Weather Service in Key West.
Boaters in Key West faced more volatile hardships, especially those on the ocean side of Key West, where harsh south winds blew 5-foot waves into piers and threatened to send boats onto their seawalls. The ocean’s relentless inundation was exacerbated by the week’s “super moon” and king tides, which would have increased high tide levels even without a storm pushing more water onto shore.
Monroe County did not need to open any storm shelters, all county operations took place as usual and schools remained open.
“This is a good trial run for us,” Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi said during one of the countywide storm coordinating calls that Idalia presented a good dry run for Monroe County, which escaped all but minor inconvenience from an otherwise devastating storm.
