We come on the air with breaking news. At least two people are dead tonight as Hurricane Idalia leaves a path of destruction across Florida and slams Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The video after landfall is stunning. Idalia hit Florida’s Bid Bend region as a category three storm with maximum sustained winds of one hundred and twenty-five miles per hour. Tonight, hundreds of thousands of customers are still without power. We’re hearing stories tonight of survival. Some residents who rode out the storm at home say they had to escape by swimming out of their windows. The National Hurricane Center’s advisory is just in, Idali is now a tropical storm. But the risk of flooding, storm surge, and strong winds continues. And at this hour, there are reports of at least one tornado in South Carolina.

Some neighborhoods here in Citrus County are still under water. This storm pummeled Florida’s Gulf Coast with heavy winds and torrential rains. And at its peak, more than two hundred and fifty thousand people were without power. Hurricane Idalia roared ashore at 7:45 this morning packing powerful one hundred and twenty-five miles per hour winds. The storm surge flooded hundred of miles Florida’s Gulf Coast. The eye came ashore near Keaton Beach which was nearly washed away by an eight-foot wall of water. Taylor County along the state’s Big Bend bore the brunt of the storm. The town of Perry took a direct hit. Trees were ripped down, homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, including this gas station canopy, blown completely over.