Florida residents are preparing as tropical storm Idalia has strengthened into a hurricane.
RELATED: Fire rescue helicopter crashes near Fort Lauderdale https://tinyurl.com/4n2cw8dd
The Category 1 storm was expected to “rapidly intensify into an extremely dangerous major hurricane” before striking Florida on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said. Extremely warm waters in the Gulf were fueling Idalia, which now has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
Residents along the Gulf Coast loaded up on sandbags and evacuated from homes in low-lying areas along the coast Monday as Idalia intensified.
» Subscribe to USA TODAY: http://bit.ly/1xa3XAh
» Watch more on this and other topics from USA TODAY: https://bit.ly/3GqYgdk
» USA TODAY delivers current local and national news, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, and more through award-winning journalism, photos, videos and VR.
#Florida #Hurricane #Idalia