Hurricane Idalia live updates: Thousands without power in Florida

By 9 a.m. Wednesday, shortly after Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Taylor County, about 232,000 people statewide were without electricity, according to poweroutage.us.

Duke Energy had about 49,000 customers without power, the largest amount in the state, followed by Florida Power & Light.

About 2,400 customers were without power in Lake County, including both Duke and SECO Energy customers.

About 1,000 were without electricity in Orange, with the vast majority Duke customers. Only about 19 Orlando Utilities Commission customers were without power.

— Carolyn Guniss and Steven Lemongello

BULLETIN: 7:45 AM EDT update: Extremely dangerous Category 3 Hurricane #Idalia makes landfall in the Florida Big Bend. Maximum sustained winds were estimated to be 125 mph. Catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds ongoing. — National Hurricane Center on X.

DeSantis warns of 16-foot surges

Earlier, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Hurricane Idalia was to make landfall in the next two hours in the Big Bend region with a storm surge of up to 16 feet.

“That level of storm surge is life-threatening,” DeSantis said, also warning people not to go outside. “Don’t put your life at risk by doing anything dumb at this point.”

As if to underscore the risk, the power went out at the Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee while DeSantis was giving an update on the storm. “And there we go with our power here,” DeSantis said.

Emergency generators kicked in about five seconds later.

“And we’re back,” the governor said.

Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said landfall was expected at Keaton Beach, the main beach in Taylor County.

“We are here. We are ready. We will deploy our response recovery teams as quickly as we can,” Guthrie said. “Please rest assured, we will do whatever it takes to help our communities recover from Idalia.”

– Jeffrey Schweers

Central Florida forecast

Despite a morning lull, the National Weather Service continued to forecast more rain and wind for Central Florida.

Meteorologist Cassie Leahy said the tropical rain bands from Idalia should bring about 1 to 2 inches of rain to the Orlando area, along with sustained winds of 25 to 30 mph and gusts of up to 40 mph.

“We could see some gusts a little bit higher, maybe 45 [mph] or so, in those stronger rain bands through this afternoon,” Leahy said.

— Steven Lemongello

Tornado watch issued for Central Florida

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for most of Central Florida early Wednesday as people in the path of Hurricane Idalia begin to feel the impacts of the storm.

The NWS said a few tornados are likely to form in counties closest to Idalia and its feeder bands.

Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia counties are all included in the watch, which is issued until 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Threats include isolated hail, up to half an inch in size, and wind up to 75 mph.

— Amanda Rabines and Roger Simmons

SeaWorld delays opening

SeaWorld Orlando theme park has pushed back its opening time for Wednesday to noon. Its Aquatica water park and Discovery Cove, a day resort, are closed Wednesday and plan to reopen Thursday.

Sister attraction Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is closed Wednesday, and its Adventure Island water park is closed through Thursday.

All date-specific tickets for those closed days have been automatically extended through Thursday.

Other Central Florida attractions say they will continue to monitor weather conditions, but Universal Orlando, Walt Disney World and Legoland Florida say they plan to operate as usual Wednesday. Universal suspended its early entry benefit for hotel guests for the day.

Orlando Science Center, which is normally closed to the public on Wednesdays during the school year, will reopen Thursday.

– Dewayne Bevil