Idalia strengthens to a hurricane

TAMPA, Florida (AP) — Idalia became a hurricane on Tuesday, threatening to bring deadly storm surge and dangerous winds to Florida's Gulf Coast after lashing Cuba with heavy rain.

Florida residents loaded up on sandbags and evacuated from homes in low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast to prepare for a storm that the National Hurricane Center projected could have sustained winds of up to 120 mph (193 kph).

That would make it a Category 3 hurricane — a potentially big blow to a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year's Hurricane Ian.

At 8 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Hurricane Idalia was about 320 miles (515 kilometres) south-southwest of Tampa, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph), the hurricane center said. Idalia was moving north at 14 mph (22 kph).

The center of Idalia is forecast to reach the Gulf Coast of Florida as "an extremely dangerous major hurricane before landfall on Wednesday," and then move over the peninsula blow through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina on Thursday.

"Right now, the biggest hazards are storm surge," Robbie Berg, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said Tuesday morning. "We're expecting a surge as much as 8 to 12 feet above normal tide levels in portions of the Big Bend area of Florida."

Idalia thrashed Cuba with heavy rain, especially in the westernmost part of the island, where the tobacco-producing province of Pinar del Rio is still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian.

Authorities in the province issued a state of alert, and residents were evacuated to friends' and relatives' homes. As much as 4 inches (10 centimetres) of rain fell in Cuba on Sunday, meteorological stations reported.

Idalia was expected to start affecting Florida with hurricane-force winds as soon as late Tuesday. It is the first storm to hit Florida this hurricane season and authorities urged residents to wrap up storm preparation by Tuesday morning at the latest.

Idalia is also the latest in a summer of natural disasters, including wildfires in Hawaii, Canada and Greece; the first tropical storm to hit California in 84 years, and devastating flooding in Vermont.

As Gulf Coast residents packed up their cars or hauled out generators in case of power outages, state officials warned about potential fuel contamination at dozens of gas stations.

President Joe Biden told the Florida governor that he had approved an emergency declaration for the state, the White House said in a news release. 

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