 in Tallahassee to call the storm 'unprecedented.' Idalia directly struck the unincorporated area of Keaton Beach, about 22 miles south of the city of Perry and 20 miles north of the coastal town of Steinhatchee. Floridians kayak past an abandoned car in St Pete Beach, Florida (Picture: AP) A destroyed gas station in Perry, Florida (Picture: Leslie Fletcher via WCTV) The town sits at the mouth of the Steinhatchee River, which saw devastating flooding occur only minutes after the storm approached the mainland. At 7.30am, the Steinhatchee River was .83 feet higher than its average its stage, or reference height. By 7.45am, that height had swelled to 2.49 feet higher than average. Just an hour later, the NWS recorded water levels of 8.02 feet higher than average. Videos from Steinhatchee appear to show flooding so severe that individual buildings were turned into islands in the surging river waters. A Steinhatchee resident wades through the water of the river in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia (Picture: AP) Rescue workers search the flooded streets of Steinhatchee (Picture: AP) To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported tidal waters a total of 6.8 feet higher than the normal on the island of Cedar Key, a small community that was evacuated by state order on Monday. Most of the islands 900 residents evacuat){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
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The devastation caused by Hurricane Idalia on Florida’s pristine Gulf Coast has flooded coastal communities and killed at least two people.
Idalia made landfall in the Sunshine State around 7.45am on Wednesday. It struck the Big Bend region, a sparsely populated, rural area sometimes known as Florida’s ‘Nature Coast.’
The Big Bend usually does not see direct hits from hurricanes, leading to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Tallahassee to call the storm ‘unprecedented.’