Hurricane Idalia Livecam Destroyed by Colossal Waves: 'Really Crazy'

Footage emerging on social media from western Florida shows storm surge from Hurricane Idalia already causing several feet of flooding in coastal regions, in one case knocking out a weather monitoring live camera.

The tropical cyclone is expected to make landfall around noon ET on Wednesday after strengthening to a Category 4 storm, bringing winds in excess of 130 miles an hour. Meteorologists predict Idalia will travel across northern Florida, before moving through Georgia and up the coasts of the Carolinas.

The National Hurricane Center foresees coastal storm surges of as much as 16 feet above ground level and destructive waves in Florida's Big Bend. It also warned of potentially "life-threatening winds" when the core of the storm makes landfall and flooding in parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina into Thursday.

One live camera placed in Horseshoe Beach, located on the Big Bend, was entirely knocked out by surging floodwater shortly after the break of dawn. Before the feed went out, tall waves pushed by high wind could be seen washing over the camera.

One social media user called the footage "really crazy."

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee, an area that could fall in the path of the hurricane, described the storm as "an unprecedented event" as no major hurricanes on record have ever moved into the Apalachee Bay, which sits at the northern end of the Big Bend.

"This hurricane is making landfall in an area that has substantial debris, and we are prepared to surge resources to clear roads and restore power as quickly as possible," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

CCTV camera footage from a street in Gulfport, a suburb of St. Petersburg, taken around 1:20 a.m. ET on Wednesday shows two people walking through shin-depth water amid high winds.

Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said shortly after 1:30 a.m. that there was already between three and four feet of floodwater in St. Pete Beach, on the spit to the west of Gulfport. It posted footage of clear water pouring across an otherwise empty road.

Newsweek reached out to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office via email for comment on Wednesday.

Further up the coast, officials in Treasure Island said there was flooding around the same time. It published a clip showing water moving down the road in the same direction as fierce winds.

The local authority said shortly after 8 a.m. ET that the bridge connecting it to the mainland had been closed and access to the island restricted, with re-entry disallowed due to the "significant flooding" expected to continue through the day. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said that as of 6:30 a.m., all the bridges to the barrier islands had been closed to citizens.

Meanwhile, doorbell camera footage from Cedar Key, a small island city off the coast of Florida, shows powerful waves breaking over a sea wall, carpeting the road in water up to the height of a car's bumper. Mark Sudduth, a storm tracker for Fox Weather, said the video had been taken at 5:03 a.m., "just before the power went out and we couldn't see any more from the remote cam."

As of 8:24 a.m. on Wednesday, there were 169,203 households in Florida without power, with the highest concentrations in counties that are in the direct path of Hurricane Idalia, according to poweroutage.us.

Storm surge is a rise in the sea water level beyond tidal changes that precede the arrival of an impending storm. Even before a storm hits, it can cause severe flooding as seawater breaches coastal defenses.

In October 2022, a storm surge from Hurricane Ian caused damage to coastal parts of Florida, including causing several electric vehicles to combust due to seawater short-circuiting their lithium batteries. Residents have been told to move their electric vehicles to safety ahead of Hurricane Idalia making landfall.