by Madeleine Hubbard
Hurricane Idalia’s path of destruction through four different states has left at least three people dead and caused up to $20 billion in estimated damage.
The storm, which first hit Florida’s northern Gulf coast Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane, traveled through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina before entering over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday.
Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Gaskins said two men died in weather-related accidents Wednesday morning as Idalia raged, according to CNN.
Georgia’s Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said her county had one storm-related death Wednesday afternoon. A man had been cutting a tree on a highway when another tree fell on him, resulting in his death, Paulk said.
It is unclear whether the death toll has increased as of Thursday morning.
A preliminary estimate from AccuWeather of Idalia’s total damage and economic loss in the southeast U.S. ranges between $18 billion to $20 billion.
Putting Idalia’s estimated cost into context, Hurricane Ian last year caused up to $210 billion in damage, according to the weather outlet.
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Madeleine Hubbard joined Just the News as a fast file reporter after working as an editor at Breitbart News.
Photo “Hurricane Idalia Damage” by Ron DeSantis.
Context: Florida OIR reports $11 BN in ‘insurance claims’ estimate with 85% of claims now processed. IAN might run $20 BN for FEMA ‘cleanup’ // some estimate $80 BN in uninsured ‘flood claims’!
I have screeprints of NWS “3 day history” of wind-speeds recorded up Florida thru Georgia to Charleston, SC as these will be ‘history’ you won’t see come Sunday. Imagine a CAT 4 / 3 /2 / 1 hurricane never recording actual wind speeds of tropical storm ‘gusts’ at any official weather station at Airports or Military!
NOW, we are being told how suddenly the CAT 4 redid its ‘wall’ dropping to CAT 3 etc.
NHC issued a 5 AM advisory of 12-16 foot ‘surges’, then waited until 11 AM to say “the sky shall continue falling”. We keep hearing of the 12-16 foot surge, but got actual 6 ft at highest in Cedar Key and 4 feet at Clearwater.
My Juno Beach friend moved north of Jessup on 100 acre farm… hunkered down for reported CAT 1 of 80 mph… his weather station recorded just 22, or about the same as Jessup Airport below 30 mph!!
I emailed GOV Ron to have Ashley Moody preserve the records as it is obvious the new extra terrestrial ‘science’ allows us to order CAT 1 Hurricanes to be gentle on the ground below??
Last year for Ian’s CAT 4 the actual wind speed as landfall approached at 4 weather stations pegged it at 130 mph, rapidly going down to CAT 1 within coupla miles of beach with Tropical Storm by next county over. You lost remaining vestiges of ‘stick built’… new CBS code suffered minor damage unless directly struck by ‘surge’!