Hurricane Idalia struck Florida and Georgia on Sunday, August 27 and lasted through the week, being classified as a category three storm. Idalia reached 125 mile per hour winds with heavy rainfall causing flooding and damaging property, although Idalia is weakening as it moves to the Northeast through Georgia and the Carolinas. Thousands are still left without power and parts of Western Florida are completely cut off from the rest of the state. Numerous bridges and roads have been shut down, and properties were left destroyed in Florida. Winds and flooding left buildings almost completely submerged and demolished. The hurricane has already caused multiple fatalities throughout Florida and Georgia, most being car accident related deaths. The storm has caused flooding and tornados in parts of North and South Carolina as it moves to the Northeast.

Idalia was weakened to a tropical storm on Wednesday, August 30 as winds dropped to 60 miles per hour. Though the storm weakened, it still caused damage as a tornado briefly touched down in Charleston, South Carolina. The tornado caused damages to properties, cars to be swept off the ground, and minor injuries to multiple residents. Along the beaches of South Carolina, high tides were reported to have reached over nine feet which caused minor flooding in beachfront streets. 

With Idalia now out of Florida, cleanup and reconstruction have begun and residents have started to return home. Many Floridians have returned only to find their homes and businesses in ruins. The cost of damages is estimated to be $10-20 billion. Hurricane Idalia is expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico after leaving the Carolinas, which will allow for recovery efforts to begin on a much larger scale.