'Extremely dangerous' Hurricane Idalia batters Florida
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Transcript
00:00 being called a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane for Florida.
00:03 Idalia, now an extremely dangerous Category 3 storm,
00:07 was packing winds of around 200 kilometers per hour
00:10 as it made landfall.
00:12 Streets turned into rivers in the southern US state.
00:15 The torrential downpour forecast to cause coastal flooding
00:18 up to five meters.
00:20 The state's governor, Ron DeSantis,
00:22 urged people to take shelter indoors.
00:24 "The National Hurricane Center expects storm surge
00:27 to reach up to 16 feet in some areas of the Big Bend region.
00:33 That level of storm surge is life-threatening.
00:37 This thing's powerful.
00:39 If you're inside, just hunker down until it gets past you.
00:42 You don't want to be messing around with these winds.
00:45 There's going to be things flying all over the place."
00:47 Over 850 flights were canceled across the US on Wednesday,
00:52 while over 230,000 residents have
00:54 been left without power, with millions ordered to evacuate.
00:58 As Florida braces for the worst, search and rescue teams
01:01 remain on high alert.
01:02 "When the winds die down to a sufficient level,
01:06 search and rescue efforts will begin.
01:09 We have eight urban search and rescue teams staged,
01:13 ready to go, 33 ambulance strike teams,
01:16 5,500 National Guardsmen.
01:19 We also have the Coast Guard on standby,
01:22 should that be necessary."
01:24 Florida is still reeling from Hurricane Ian,
01:27 which left many people homeless last summer.
01:30 Experts say a rare supermoon on Wednesday,
01:32 coinciding with a dahlia, could raise tides
01:35 above normal, which could make tidal floods even worse.