and is expected to make landfall in the coming hours. forecasters say it will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for the residents of the gulf coast. idalia is currently a category 3 storm forecast to become a category 4 when it makes landfall. that means maximum sustained winds of at least 130 miles an hour. authorities warn the storm surge could reach 12 to 16 feet in some areas and will likely not be survivable. low-lying areas are already seeing flooding further down florida's west coast including pinellas county. more than 7 million people are under tornado watches. cedar key could be completely cut off by flooding. officials have been going door to door there to make sure residents evacuate. but not everyone is heeding the warnings. >> this is crunch time right now. we're going get hit with a major hurricane. it will be some time the eye will arrive on shore some time tomorrow morning most likely. and it is going to have major impacts. so it's likely to cause a lot of damage. and that's just the reality. so be prepared for that. be prepared to lose power. and just know that there is a lot of folks that are going to be there to help you get back on your feet. >> cnn's gloria pazminos. and karen maginnis, what are you seeing as it gets ever closer to florida's coast? >> yes, we just received our 3:00 a.m. eastern time update from the national hurricane center. this system, hurricane idalia is now traveling towards the north. the shift occurred maybe a couple of hours ago slightly towards the west. and this changes the dynamics quite a bit. but overall, what it means is there is going to be a tremendous amount of storm surge in these very low-lying areas. this is a fairly sparsely populated region of florida. it has supporting winds right now at 120 miles per hour. just 130 miles per hour makes ate category 4 hurricane. the national hurricane center has been saying this is going to increase in intensity and become a category 4 right before landfall because water temperature here is very conducive for further development. so category 3 now is less than 100 miles now away from cedar key. but as i mentioned, this is where we are seeing fishing lodges, lots of recreational activity that takes place here. not like the more densely populated areas around tampa, sat. pete, coral gables, florid. but watch what happens here. we go through time. category 4 somewhere in this east central panhandle of florida. and then right along the border between georgia and south carolina, still a category 1 as we go later on into the afternoon. could be supporting winds of maybe 80 miles an hour? at least that's the forecast. so all these regions from florida to georgia, south carolina, north carolina are under states of emergency. flooding is still a high potential here. you will probably lose power in a lot of these coastal areas. look how some of these stronger bands are expected to move onshore. already we're seeing a very large tornado watch, which goes into 6:00 a.m. across a good portion of western areas of the florida peninsula. up here in this big bend area, it's going to be a monster, because this is very low-lying areas. i looked at the elevations. maybe 5 feet, maybe 10 feet. but the storm surge could be 12 to 16 feet. it is unsurvivable if you're caught in something like that. the number one cause of death in a hurricane is the storm surge. but look at what happens when we go into wednesday. heavy storms lashing portions of southeastern georgia, extending into savannah, brunswick into hiltonhead and maybe even into edisto and charleston. i'll be back coming up at the bottom of the hour with more details. omar, back to you. >> karen maginnis. i want to go to karen pasmino monitoring things from the ground. gloria, we've seen rain come in. winds pick up at different hours. what are you seeing right now? >> well, omar, in the last hour or so, it has been all about the wind here in clearwater. the wind has significantly picked up. the rain has let up for at least the past hour or so. it kind of comes in, in and out in trickles. but as you heard, we are expecting this hurricane to continue to gather strength and speed as it hovers over the gulf of mexico. and it is approaching the west coast of florida, and it's not far from cedar key. i believe we have a live look at what conditions look like there. we're starting to see a lot of the waves incoming into the area. now just a little bit about cedar key. this is a small community. this is a small area mostly known for its fishing. and it is an area that is under mandatory evacuation orders. as you mentioned at the beginning, law enforcement went door to door earlier today, trying to make sure that people made it out of there. we do know from officials there in the area that there are about 100 people who stayed behind. and that is going to be troubling, because at some point, it is possible that cedar key is cut off from the rest of the mainland. this is a tiny island there that is going to be in the direct path of that hurricane, hurricane idalia continuing to gather strength. so the situation there is going to be dire. here where we are, in clearwater beach, part of pinellas county, there is also a mandatory evacuation order. and the concern here is the storm surge. we are about from where i'm standing about a quarter of a mile i would say to the edge of the beach in that direction. and we watched earlier today as hotel workers here in the area kind of lined the area with sandbags, trying to prevent that water from coming in. so far it stayed away. but if the storm surge does start to move inland to where we are right now, we are expecting to see anywhere from 4 to 7 feet of water moving in this direction. there are other parts of the county here in pinellas that are already seeing some flooding from that water coming in from the beach. so the next critical hours will determine whether or not that water starts moving inland, and that is going to potentially cause a lot of problems as idalia continues its path headed to the western coast of florida. omar? >> gloria pazmino, thank you for your updates throughout the past few hours. we'll stay close to you. christopher evan is citrus county's are director of emergency management and joins us live southeast of cedar key. so director, start us off with what are your major concerns right now? what are you monitoring as this hurricane continues to get closer to landfall? >> good morning. dangerous storm surge that is our major concern. >> yeah. and at that point, you know, we're looking all up and down the big bend area, where in some places it's forecast to be up to 16 feet. i believe it's a little bit lower from where you are all are right now, potentially up to 11 feet it's not much better. but when you talk about concern over storm surge, what are you telling residents? how do you combat that? >> evacuate. get away from that water. we're looking at about 11 feet. however, levy county is 12 to 16 feet just north of us. the line is so close that we could see potential of greater than 11 feet for citrus county. and we have about 18,000 people who live in zone a, which is along the coast. and we have directed them over the past days to get out and seek shelter, away from this dangerous storm. >> yeah. and you know, i was just talking to the sheriff in levy county not long ago. he told me while some people have heeded evacuation warnings, they had issue with folks getting them to leave cedar key, despite them being in potentially one of the biggest risk areas. i'm curious for you in citrus county. have folks been receptive to these evacuation orders? have you had difficulties in getting them to at the very least move further inland? >> i'm very concerned. from a shelter standpoint, we have less than 200 people in our shelters. now if you take that 18,000 people on that coast, where do they all go? did they heed our early warnings and say go tens of miles rather than hundreds of miles and get away bring the coastal area? or are they staying behind? and that concerns me greatly, because in a couple of hours, we're going to know tragically if they stayed. >> and in a couple hours, again, we're going to have some of those crucial moments of landfall. but one thing i always think about, i have covered many of these hurricanes before, many of them in florida. and a lot of folks go to bed with one picture of what the day is looking like and wake up to something completely different. i think that's probably what we're going see here. once we do get to those morning hours and landfall has happened, potentially as a category 4 hurricane, what can you do at that point? and for folks that stayed, what do they do? >> well, if they stayed behind, and we're expecting the impact around 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, or this morning, i should say, they're going to have to wait until the winds die down and it's safe enough for emergency responders to head out. and at that point, we're going conduct those critical rescue operations to save those people that need to be rescued. >> and, you know, it may be clear to some. may not to others. but when this happens, if somebody needs help in the worst of the storm, you're not going to be able to get to them in any form of immediate fashion. >> that's correct. it's too dangerous to operate any vehicles, especially emergency vehicles because fire rescue and ems, high profile vehicles, that wind is so dangerous, it risks the crews that get out there. and we don't want to lose the life of them during that period of time. >> yeah, yeah. well, christopher evan, director of emergency management in citrus county, florida, thank you for your time. please stay safe. i know you all have a lot to get to. if you need messages you need to be getting out, feel free to reach out. i know you've been in touch. >> thank you so much. >> of course. now despite evacuation orders, some floridians are choosing to ride out the storm. we'll hear from one of those floridians, next. >> now we're advising residents to stay home, hunker down, stay off the roads. it's too dangerous to be on the roads. baby, only on game nights. you know you are retired right? 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able to access your neighbors. if the worst of the storm surge projection materializes, virtually every home on that island could be flooded. >> that's a top official with the u.s. national hurricane center there, warning that idalia threatens to cut cedar key off from florida. the storm is now 100 miles southwest of the city. you can see cedar key right there in the center of the big bend. officials are warning that that area could experience historic storm surges. and though evacuation orders are in place, the city's mayor says many people aren't heeding evacuation warnings. listen to what one resident told cnn about why he is riding out the storm. >> right now you can feel the pressure dropping in your belly. and it feels like the hand of death. and i've never been an alarmist about hurricanes. i always think it's going to be just fine. but i'm concerned about this place that i love so much. we haven't had anything like this since the great cedar key hurricane of 1896. and i think it's going to be three times as bad as that so this island that we all love, have i grave concerns will largely not be here as we know it 48 hours from now. there is just a certain quality of folks that live and make their living here on the water. we're an individualistic type people. and there are just a certain amount of folks that aren't going to leave. and i'm on my high horse preaching about leaving. yet here i sit. there's just some percentage of the folks in an island community that are going to ride it out with the island. and to the extent that i can try to be as safe that i can and help my neighbors, you know, you got to draw a line in the sand somewhere in your life and say this is what matters to me, and this is what i care about. for me, it's cedar key and the people i live with. i'm going to do my best to see what i can do to help. >> now we want to take you to perry, florida, which isn't too far from cedar key. it's where storm chaser aaron jay jack is and joins by phone. aaron, tell us a little bit about what you're seeing. perry is expected to be right in the middle of where this hurricane is going to come through. >> yeah, so last night, i went to bed for a few hours get a little rest before this major hurricane makes landfall. with perry, florida, one of the few towns in the big bend region along the coast. we are about 10 miles inland off the gulf of mexico. but last night it was quite still very hot and humid. i was seeing flashes of lightning in the distance as we had a tornado watch here in effect. now this morning, i just woke up a little bit ago. but we now have started to get rain. the rain of hurricane idalia has started to move into the area. the winds are picking up slightly. but nothing near where they're going to be in the next seven to eight hours when i expect landfall will happen, and we'll have landfall, a category 3 or 4 possible hurricane. right now it is a category 3, a major hurricane. and this thing is going to continue to intensify as it comes ashore here this morning. >> and look, you've been around the block covering tornadoes, hurricanes, you name it. and i'm just curious for your take. based on the forecasts that we've seen to this point, what are you expecting toee in the coming hours physically on the ground where you are? and how do you intend to react to what you're seeing? >> so we're going to slowly see the winds begin to pick up and get stronger as each hour passes. eventually we'll reach those tropical storm strength winds, 35 plus, 45-mile-per-hour winds. until we get to the hurricane force winds of the outer eye wall of the hurricane approaches land. we'll get strong winds coming from onshore winds actually, coming out of the east-southeast of these cyclone that's rotating. until the eye wall comes ashore, where the strongest winds are associated right along the eye of the storm. and that's when things are going to get really bad here in the big bend region of florida. we'll start having power outages. trees will start coming down. there are a lot of trees here along the coast. and in fact, it makes it quite a difficult chase. i've chased a lot of hurricanes. cat 5 michael, hurricane ian last year. both of those hurricanes were in more populated areas. this is a low population area. this is good for florida. not as many people will be impacted. as a storm chaser, it's a little bit more difficult for me. and one of the other problems of the storm chaser with this storm, this is a very small storm. the eye of the storm is only about 10 miles across right now. my goal is to get into that eye of the storm. and when you've got a small eye, it's going to be quite difficult. trees are going to be coming down, blocking traffic. i may have to ride it out here in perry, florida this morning. >> to that point, obviously, look, there has been a lot of calls to evacuate, and places all across the region. but you, like me sometimes, i covered hurricane michael, irma, you name it, you go down the list there, what is something that you see while a storm is coming in like this that you hope residents don't see, that you hope that they've gotten far away from. is there anything that comes to mind that when you see it, wow, that's the reason they're telling people to evacuate? >> well, the biggest concern with these hurricanes and people needing to evacuate is that storm surge. storm surge is by far the deadliest part of a hurricane. this one is expected to get up to 15, 16 feet of storm surge. here in perry, florida, fortunately we're about 46 feet above sea level. so we're not going to have that storm surge effect here. as you get closer to the coast, the elevation goes down. it's coastal marshes and forest land. you can't even hardly see the gulf of mexico when you drive along the coast here. there is only a few spots where you can see it. if you stay along the coast here in the big bend region where this hurricane is coming across, this is deadly storm surge. you're likely not going to survive san francisco foot of storm surge coming across the land along the coast. but the wind can be dangerous too. there is going to be flying debris, sheet metal. this area does not see a lot of major hurricanes. i think the last one was at 1800, perhaps there was a category 2 in 1968. that hit around cedar key area. so this area is not familiar with these major hurricanes. there is going to be a lot of buildings here that are not built with modern technology to be able to withstand the full force of a cat-4 hurricane. there is going to be a lot of debris flying around. power is going to be knocked out. if you didn't evacuate and you are in the area, you can expect to have no power for the next two to three, maybe four days. maybe for a week there will be no power here in the hardest hit areas. >> look, for as much as we talk about the storm surge, it is forecast to be a category 4 which sustains wind shields up to 106 miles per hour. not a lot of structures that can take that very easily. storm chaser aaron jay jack, thank you for joining us. stay safe and stay in touch. >> all right. thank you. >> of course. >> we'll have an update on hurricane idalia's path live from the cnn weather center. and we will have an update on hurricane idalia and where it's expected to head and how strong it might be, coming up in the cnn weather center. goli, taste your goals. hurricane idalia expected to be an extremely dangerous category 4 storm, and it makes landfall in florida in the next few hours. nasa is releasing these images showing the sheer magnitude of the hurricane from space. idalia set to be one of the most powerful storms ever to hit that area of florida's western coast. some cities are already starting to see the early effects of the hurricane with flooding reported in pinellas county. but one of the storm's most dangerous effects won't be fully seen for hours after it makes landfall. forecasters are predicting deadly storm surges, as high as 15 feet in some areas. here is what one official told me earlier about the potential impact of idalia's storm surge. >> the closest we've ever came to a storm surge like that on our coastal communities was back with hermine. we got maybe 4, 5 foot. and we're low laying in some of our communities on the post as suwannee and horseshoe. it was devastating. we had a lot of major damage to residence and structures. for us a storm surge with a potential of 16 foot is just total, you know, catastrophe and devastation. and there is no way people that stay down there can survive that, unless they get to elevated ground above that. >> let's bring back in meteorologist karen maginnis at the cnn weather center. karen, i know you've been tracking the relationship in some cases of the elevation to where this storm is expected to hit. what are you seeing on your end for the overall picture here? >> what i'm looking at when i take a look at this satellite imagery is there is no dry air intrusion. meaning we're not seeing a slot of dry air making the system weaker or influencing it. it is just sitting in very warm, relatively shallow water, gaining some strength. we are seeing it. it will probably become a category 4. but we see wind reports here out of clearwater, st. pete, tampa, naples, cedar key. they're 45 to about 60 miles per hour. that doesn't really speak of the whole story. it's the storm surge, deadly. the number one deadly aspect of a hurricane, a category 4 with a storm surge of 8 feet, 10 feet, 12, 15 is unimaginable. this should probably make landfall probably around 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. my colleague, meteorologist allison chinchar will be here at the top of the hour to continue to update you throughout the day. here we go. and then by wednesday evening, could it still possibly be at hurricane strength in south georgia, or right along the border with south carolina and georgia? certainly it can. and the projection is that it will. under a state of emergency, north carolina, south carolina, georgia and florida. as you can well imagine there could be severe flooding in the low-lying areas. it's all low-lying areas. i've checked the elevation of a number of cities. we go through time, and here we see some of those bands still moving onis for for tampa. still affecting gainesville. still affecting st. mark's apalachicola lab, tallahassee, gainesville. we will see widespread trees down already some 40,000 customers without power across florida. that number is going to go exponentially. well, as i mentioned, we'll have another update at the top of the hours from the national hurricane center and allison chinchar will be here to update you. >> karen maginnis, thank you so much as always. now south of cedar key florida is wikiwachi. that's where i find the chairman of the county board of commissioners. john, lay out the picture for us. what are you seeing on your end right now, and what are you most concerned with as we approach this potentially catastrophic hurricane making landfall? >> well, what we're seeing right now is fortunately we've had many, a high percentage of our community has heeded the evacuation orders, and they have left the areas where we expect to have storm surge. certainly concern about the storm surge and how severe it will be. but right now the information we're getting is that we have not had the amount of surge we expected yet. we expect it still to come up as we hit our next king tide which will be about 12 hours from now. our shelters have been slowly ticking up through the night, just because people, you know, have decided that they didn't want to deal with the storm itself. and they've slowly made their way up. i believe we're about 260 across the country which is a low number considering how many people have evacuated. but again, grateful that we have those open. special need shelter, pet shelter, and in general shelters being used. >> along those lines, for shelters were talking to an initial out of sis tris county, not too far from where you are. the number of people in their 14e68s. that meant potentially could be a lot of people still throughout. and i'm curious when you see that low number of people in your shelters, is that a number you expect to rise or what does that number tell you at this snaj stage? >> prior toette getting dark, we were told between the national guard and our sheriff's department that about 80% of the beach areas, or the waterfront areas had already evacuated. and that was probably eight:00ish. so that just tells me that people listened. they left early, and they found their way. they're probably family and friends rather than sitting in a shelter. we've encouraged that all along the way. use this shelter as your last resort, but definitely evacuate. >> look, i don't want the get two out of things because the hurricane hasn't even made landfall. many floridians they or somebody they know has been affected by hurricanes at the magnitude. or at the very least have had their lives affected by these things. once we get past the initial high winds, the initial effects of this, what types of fly supplies, what types of things are people going to need as the area tries to get back to some semblance of normalcy? >> well, obviously we'll be ready for debris removal. that's a big part of getting the waterfront areas cleaned up. we're ready for that. we've had issues in the past during hermine. obviously way back in the 90s we had the no name storm in our area. those things we're prepared for. our county staff already to get out there and survey the area in hernando beach and along the wiki watchy shortly after the waters recede so we can help people start getting ready and cleaning up. that's a big part of it is just the cleanup afterwards. >> and what do you see to residents of your county who are likely going to be wake up to a very different picture than what they saw when they went to sleep? >> our emergency operations team is ready. our sheriffs department, our fire department are ready to be there toe help you. and we will do whatever we can to speed this process up and hopefully get you back into your home as soon as possible. >> well, chairman of hernando county board of commissioners, best of luck to you. i know you have a lot of work ahead of you, but i hope you stay safe. >> thank you, sir. and you be safe as well. >> of course. now as hurricane idalia churns towards landfall on florida's coast, it's growing more powerful, and meteorologists fear climate change has a lot to do with it. attention are yo suffering from hearing loss? but can't nd affordable hearing aids? due to changes in restrictive federal laws, now hearing aids can be sold direct to the consumer without a prescription for thousands less! call or go online now to get your pair of rca hearing aids in your choice of 2 ultra-discreet styles, for only $249 a pair. delivered, free. right to your door... they're 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center says the storm has the makings of an unprecedented event for this part of florida. there are no major hurricanes in the historical data set going become to 1851 that has tracked directly into this region. the federal government has teams and sources on the ground positioned in areas to likely to be affected by the storm. >> fema's disaster relief fund, which as of this morning has a balance of $3.4 billion. so today i am directing the implication of immediate needs funding. this means that fema will prioritize available funding for critical response efforts to vidalia, the mawry fireses and any other extreme weather events that i may come our way. >> what's stunning to meteorologists i should say is how quickly hurricane idalia's intensify. the reason? the gulf of mexico is extraordinarily warm, and it's absorbing energy. water temperatures have risen to 100 degrees this summer off of florida, and many scientists say climate change has a lot to do with it. >> one of the scariest units of measurements i've learned is hiroshimas per second. that is the extra amount absorbed by our motions. a few years ago it was five hiroshima sized explosions every second of every day. now it's around 10, due to the heat trapping pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels. and it's sort of if you were to heat up a bathtub of lukewarm water with the teakettle, it would take a while. it would stay lukewarm until it no longer is. in the summer of 2023, people saw these numbers. this is off the charts faster than we anticipated. it creates more storm energy. it's mother energy for these hurricanes, steroids, whatever metaphor you want to use, one degree of warming fahrenheit can lead to a 10% greater intensity of the storm. there are other factors involved, wind shear and el nino and all that stuff. but this is coming at a time when you have got folks who know these waters, who know the hurricanes of years past and are sort of setting their wrist management around the world that really no longer exists. but guy is mike baker, a captain here who has ferried presidents out on fishing trips down here. he knows these waters better than most. he is deciding to stay. and i asked him why. talk about the decision the stay when something like this is so obviously scary. >> it backed in hurricane donna as a kid. our currenter parents took us to the mainland. and we came back and our home had been rummaged from other people, the looters took everything. not to mention the amount of time you're away from your home. you have no idea what it's going to look like. or if you have a home when you're there, that's all it to take from me. trees and purchase lines would be across the road. and i can't get here. that is more harmful than riding the storm. >> this is of course a state about civil liberties. part of the appeal for a lot of people living here is no one is going to tell you what to do. well, now you have authorities telling you what to do. get out of the low-lying areas for your own sake. nobody is coming back to help until it's too late. the cautionary tale from less than a year ago when it hit lee county, most of the dusts came from storm surge that is not survivable if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> bill weir, thank you. storm surges are one of the most dangerous parts of hurricanes. we're expecting to see massive surges hours ahead. the latest on that threat, next. inclcluding mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me sharp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. in just a matter of hours, hurricane idalia is due to make landfall in florida's gulf coast. the storm is packing a punch already, carrying winds up to 120 miles per hour, and it's continuing to intensify as it approaches florida's big bend. forecasters warn that this will be a storm to remember. coastal regions could experience storm surges up to 16 feet, which officials say will be unsurvivable in some areas. more now on the big concern here, the storm surge. it's known as storm generated water over and above the predicted tides. our randi kaye puts this anticipated surge in historical perspective. >> reporter: this is what it's like in downtown new orleans right now. >> it's hard to estimate how much water that is. >> reporter: in august 2005, hurricane katrina barreled into the louisiana coast. the storm was a powerful category 3 hurricane when it made landfall with winds near 127 miles per hour. but what made katrina so deadly wasn't so much the wind as the water. >> i tried swimming to higher ground, but there was no higher ground. >> reporter: according to the national hurricane center, storm surge flooding measured 10 to 28 feet above normal tide levels. the storm surge that poured into lake pontchartrain breached the levee system, flooding most of new orleans. catastrophic flooding spread for miles inland, destroying residential neighborhoods. >> it came in so fast. it was from 1 inch to 10 feet in the matter of ten minutes. >> reporter: nearly 1400 people perished during the hurricane and the floods that followed. most of them drowned. katrina is a prime example of how deadly a storm surge can be. in 2008, hurricane ike made landfall as it swept over galveston island on the texas coast. i was a category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour. much of the area saw devastating storm surges of 15 to 20 feet above normal tide levels. >> the ocean came through the house. it came literally came through the house. there is sludge and snakes and you name it. >> reporter: years earlier in 1995, hurricane opal made landfall near pensacola beach, florida as a category 3 storm. again, the story was the storm surge. >> totally gone. we didn't do anything but lock the door on our way out. >> reporter: with opal, the storm surge spanned about 120 miles from pensacola beach to mexico beach. that surge combined with breaking waves soaked portions of the florida panhandle's coast with water as deep as 10 to 20 feet. the maximum storm tide, which combines storm surge and regular astronomical tides was 24 feet recorded near fort walton beach. hurricane hugo made landfall as a category 4 storm in september 1989 just north of charleston, south carolina. records show sustained winds reaching 120 miles per hour in some areas. and the storm surge, it soaked the south carolina coast with maximum storm tides of 20 feet, observed in some areas. >> the wind is picking up so dramatically. >> there is no water and the eye hit. when the eye hit, it started. it was like filling up a bathtub there was no waves there was no nothing. like in about 10 minutes. >> reporter: decades ago in 1969, it was camille, a category 5 hurricane that made landfall along the mississippi coast. the winds were so fierce, they destroyed all the wind recording instruments in the area. >> what now? >> now we'll start over again. i got the clothes i got on and $22 in my pocket. >> reporter: the winds at the coast were estimated to be about 200 miles per hour. and with those winds came water, lots of it. a storm tide of 24.6 feet occurred at pass christian, mississippi according to officials. randi kaye, cnn, palm beach county, florida. >> and tonight's super moon will enhance the tides, which is expected to worsen idalia's storm surge. a super moon is a full moon that is closer to earth than normal. so this week's super moon will be nearly 18,000 miles closer to earth than usual. the moon's gravity has a stronger effect on gulfs and oceans. forecasters say the projected storm surge of up to 15 feet already takes into account the super moon's influence on tides. as hurricane idalia makes landfall in florida, a look now at some of the strongest hurricanes to hit the state. hurricane ian was one of the deadliest hurricanes to hit florida, killing 144 people and causing $112 billion in damage. hurricane michael in 2018 was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the panhandle. 16 people died, and it caused $25 billion in damage. irma was a category 4 hurricane when it struck the florida keys, killing 10 and costing $50 billion in property damage. many people in florida still remember hurricane andrew, back in 1992. the powerful category 5 storm killed 23 and was the third most intense hurricane on record to hit the u.s. i'm omar jimenez in new york. thank you for joining me. our breaking news of hurricane idalia continues on "cnn this morning" next. stay with us. - [announcer] do you have an invention idea but don't know what to do next? call invent help today. they can help you get started with your idea. call now 800-710-0020. good wednesday morning and we start with the pbreaking new we've been following and will continue to follow for hours to come. hurricane idalia is now a powerful category 3 hurricane and it is expected to strengthen

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