Updated 8/30 9:27 a.m.
TEMPLE TERRACE, Fla. – Hurricane Idalia made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast early Wednesday morning as a Category 3 storm.
Tampa, Florida native Mark Hutson, whose wife Nancy is in Peoria with the production of “Monster High” at the Peoria Civic Center, says he’s lived through many hurricanes.
Hutson tells WMBD’s “Greg and Dan Show”, he didn’t have to evacuate because of Hurricane Idalia.
“We lost power this (Wednesday) morning as expected, the streets are filling up with water here in Tampa, because there is nowhere for it to go. We’re pretty much at sea-level, so it sits on us…but, we did miss it, it skirted past us,” Hutson says.
Hutson lives in Temple Terrace, Florida, just north of Tampa…where the flooding wasn’t expected to be catastrophic, like on the coastline.
“We’ll just have water in the streets, lots of downed limbs…like I said, the electricity’s gone. The peninsula’s out on the bay, it’s notorious for flooding, because the water has nowhere to go,” Hutson says.
Residents in 30 Florida counties along Florida’s Gulf Coast have been evacuated ahead of Idalia’s landfall.
Areas that will be hardest hit by Hurricane Idalia are expecting storm surge up to 16 feet, with sustained winds up to 130 miles per hour.
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TAMPA, Fla. – Hurricane Idalia is expected to hit the Florida Gulf Coast sometime on Wednesday, as it intensifies to a potential Category 4 storm.
Tampa resident Mark Hutson, whose wife Nancy is in Peoria with the stage production of “Monsters High” production at the Peoria Civic Center, says right now it’s the proverbial calm before the storm.
Hutson tells WMBD’s “Greg and Dan Show”, Tampa has never gotten a direct hit before, but they’re preparing for just about anything.
“The biggest worry for us is how the bay kind of sits, you know on the east side of the storm. It rotates kind of counter-clockwise, so all of that water gets shoved up into the bay with tornadoes that can pop up on the band, and a lot of flooding, because we’re at sea-level and the water has nowhere to go ,” Hutson says.
Hudson says he’s lucky to be in a pretty safe area…in Temple Terrace, just north of Tampa, in the highest point of the city.
“I’m in the central part of the city, so I’m not really worried about water. But, we will lose power…it happens,” Hutson says.
He doesn’t expect to have to evacuate, but people in trailer homes and other vulnerable areas are already being told to leave.
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