Powerful category 4 hurricane Idalia making landfall in Florida

Satellite image of powerful category 4 hurricane Idalia just off the Florida coast early Wednesday morning. (NOAA)

Idalia strengthened rapidly overnight into a category 4 hurricane, with winds reaching 130mph (215km/h). Early Wednesday morning, the center was located just off the Florida Gulf Coast, 95km west of Cedar Key, moving north, northeast at 30km/h.

Idalia will move inland early this morning, with a storm surge in excess of 12 feet expected along the coast. Coastal flooding, heavy rain, flooding and tornadoes will move across the Big Bend area of northern Florida today, spreading into Georgia and the Carolinas this afternoon and tonight. Forecasters expect Idalia to remain a hurricane into Georgia, with widespread power outages and significant damage expected.

Once Idalia emerges along the southeastern coast, flooding will spread northward into the Carolinas. Idalia is expected to slowly weaken over the course of the next 12-24 hours while inland. The storm however will become reinvigorated once it moves back over the open waters of the Atlantic. Expect Idalia to be around well into the upcoming Labour Day weekend.

Along the Florida coast early Wednesday morning, water levels are rising rapidly and evacuations and preparations have been rushed to completion. It is now time to hunker down and wait and see what Idalia does.

This story will be updated today.