GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Local 10 News crews have headed north, from Tampa to downtown Gainesville to Cedar Key, where residents are preparing for Hurricane Idalia.
Residents in those areas are continuing to prepare Tuesday for what the potential Category 3 storm can bring, including the potential of up to 130 mph winds.
While downtown Gainesville is inland, the folks on the coast, in places like Cedar Key and Horseshoe Beach, are under mandatory evacuation orders.
“It’s just what you do,” Cedar Key resident Young Malcom said. “The enjoyment of living by the sea is sometimes you gotta go and we knew that when we moved here. So, obviously you worry a little bit, but there’s nothing you can do about it, so we pack up, we go and we will be back Friday and see where we’re at.”
Malcom said he and his wife also have a home in Georgia, although they eventually plan to live in Cedar Key full-time.
“In the meantime, if it’s messy here, we go there and if it’s messy there, we come here,” he said.
Malcom said he last evacuated Cedar Key last year ahead of Hurricane Ian.
He said Florida Highway Patrol troopers and sheriff’s deputies have been going door to door, asking residents whether they plan to leave or stay, warning residents that if they choose to stay, help won’t be available until after the storm passes.
Malcom said most of his neighbors are evacuating.
Emergency management officials out there have asked residents to begin preparations for evacuations as soon as possible and for them to be completed by 4 p.m. Tuesday, as storm surge is a very likely threat.
“Listen to your local officials. I know here in Levy County, they have issued the guidance and directives,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Monday. “I think people have been very responsive. We saw with Hurricane Ian that some of this storm surge is not something that you want to mess with. That can be really, really deadly – the storm surge. So the old kind of saying is ‘you run from the water by evacuating away, then you hide from the wind by being in a structure that can withstand.’ Most structures in Florida are going to be able to withstand a Category 3 type of a system.”
On Dock Street in Cedar Key, many business owners said they were unsure of what to expect when they come back.
“We’re praying. We’re all family here,” Rea Ann Baker told Local 10 News. “We’re all so close and this business has been wonderful to me -- hoping we all see each other on the other side.”
City officials say they are bracing for the worst.
“This is a very, very serious storm,” City Commissioner Sue Colson said.
Officials are urging people to leave, saying if bridges become impassable, rescues will be close to impossible.
“You’re an island,” Colson said. “Two blocks this way, two blocks that way, two blocks that way, two blocks that way -- water. And all the other little residential areas are connected by bridges. Any one of those bridges could be taken out, and if they do, you’re stuck on your side.”
Up to 12 feet of storm surge is expected along the coast. The worst of it is expected Wednesday morning.
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