Florida confirms death from Hurricane Idalia, as people face lost homes and devastation

Florida and Georgia residents living along Hurricane Idalia's path of destruction on Thursday picked through piles of rubble where homes once stood, threw tarps over ripped-apart roofs and gingerly navigated streets left underwater or clogged with fallen trees and dangerous electric wires.

"My plan today is to go around and find anything that's in the debris that is salvageable and clean out my storage shed," said Aimee Firestine of Cedar Key, an island located in Florida's remote Big Bend area where Idalia roared ashore with 200 km/hwinds Wednesday.

Firestine rode out Idalia about 40 minutes inland. When she drove back onto the island hours after the storm passed, her heart sank.

The gas station was gone. Trees were toppled. Power lines were on the ground. An entire building belonging to the 12-unit Faraway Inn her family owns had been wiped away. Another building lost a wall.

"It was a little heart-wrenching and depressing," Firestine said.

WATCH | Cleanup from storm could cost between $10-20 billion:

Assessing the damage from hurricane Idalia

1 year ago

Duration 2:03

Hurricane Idalia now downgraded to a tropical storm left a multi-billion-dollar path of destruction after it made landfall in Florida and moved across four U.S. states.

Florida officials confirmed Thursdaythere was one hurricane-related death in the Gainesville area, but didn't release any details. The state's highway patrol reported earlier that two people were killed in separate weather-related crashes just hours before Idalia made landfall.

A man in Valdosta, Ga., died when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another tree out of the road, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said.

As many as a half-million customers were without power at one point in Florida and Georgia as the storm ripped down utility poles.

After arriving in Florida as a hurricane,Idaliaswung east, flooding many of South Carolina's beaches and leaving some in the state and North Carolina without power before heading back into the Atlantic Ocean.

Forecasters said the weakened storm should continue heading away from the United States for several days, although officials in Bermuda warned thatIdalia, now a tropical storm,could hit the island early next week.

'The town... it's devastated'

At Horseshoe Beach in central Big Bend, James Nobles returned to find his home had survived the storm, though many his neighbours weren't as lucky.

"The town, I mean, it's devastated," Nobles said. "It's probably 50 or 60 homes here, totally destroyed."

Not far from him, Jewell Baggett picked through the wreckage and debris of her mother's destroyed home, finding a few pictures and some pots and pans. Fortunately, her mother had evacuated before the storm hit.

Baggett said her grandfather built the home decades ago and it had survived four previous storms.

"And now it's gone,"she said, along with at least five to six other homes in the area. "Nothing left. A few little trinkets here and there."

WATCH | Idalia destroys a home:

Home destroyed by Hurricane Idalia

1 year ago

Duration 0:26

Surveillance video shows the moment floodwaters from Hurricane Idalia sweep away a home in Horseshoe Beach, Fla.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis toured the Big Bend area with federal emergency officials on Thursday. He noted that because the storm came ashore in the remote region where Florida's Panhandle curves into the peninsula,Idaliawas far less destructive than feared, providing only glancing blows to Tampa Bay and other more populated areas.

In contrast, Hurricane Ian last year hit the heavily populated Fort Myers area, leaving 149 dead in the state.

"I think this one, there was definitely a lot of destruction, but it was so much debris and so much woods and that's just going to require a lot to clean all that up,"DeSantis said.

Biden to tourdamage

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to DeSantis and promised whatever federal aid is available. Biden also announced that he will go to Florida on Saturday to see the damage himself.

The storm was still a menace as it crossed into Georgia, with 145 km/hwinds, when it made a direct hit on Valdosta, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said.

"We're fortunate this storm was a narrow one, and it was fast moving and didn't sit on us,"Kemp told a news conference Thursday in Atlanta. "But if you were in the path, it was devastating. And we're responding that way."

Valdosta resident Desmond Roberson said many roads remained blocked by trees and downed power lines on Thursday, and traffic lights were still blacked out at major intersections in the city of 55,000. He said the few gas stations that were open had long lines.

"It's a maze.... I had to turn around three timesjust because roads were blocked off,"Roberson said.

Chris Exum, a farmer in the south Georgia town of Quitman, estimates that he lost half or more of his pecan crop from Idalia, which he said left "a wall of green" with downed trees and limbs.

Some of the trees are 40 to 50 years old, he noted. "It takes a long time to get back to that point."

Nearly all of the 600 tarps that Georgia officials had set aside to cover damaged roofs had been claimed by Thursday morning, said Meghan Barwick, spokespersonfor surrounding Lowndes County.

More than 24,000 homes and businesses in the county of about 120,000 people remained without electricity, according to Barwick, who said residents should be prepared for several more days without lights or air conditioning.

Flowing seawater in South Carolina

In South Carolina, the storm coupled with already really high tides to send seawater flowing over sand dunes in nearly every beach town, although in most places the water was only about ankle deep. In Charleston,Idalia's surge topped part of the seawall that protects the downtown, sending ocean water into the streets and neighbourhoods where horse-drawn carriages pass million-dollar homes and the famous open-air market.

Preliminary data showed the Wednesday evening high tide reached just over 9.2 feet (2.8 metres), more than threefeet (0.9 metres) above normal and the fifth-highest reading in Charleston Harbor since records were first kept in 1899.

Bands fromIdaliaalso brought short-lived tornadoes. One flipped a car in suburban Goose Creek, S.C., causing minor injuries, authorities said. No major damage was reported.