Array
The Cedar Key, Florida, mayor issued a mandatory evacuation order to residents on Tuesday as the municipality braces for Hurricane Idalia’s expected 10 to 15-foot storm surge that is “not at all survivable,” according to officials.
Idalia strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane on Tuesday, with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph as it prepares to make landfall Wednesday in Florida’s Big Bend region.
Cedar Key Mayor Heath Davis’s evacuation order went into effect at 12:45 p.m. local time, and he urged residents to complete the evacuations by 4:00 p.m. Cedar Key is an island city off the northwest coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Residents and visitors of Cedar Key need to be off the island before the storm surge arrives. The bridges throughout the island cannot withstand the storm surge and will become impassable. Once the storm surge comes in, help may not be available to reach you,” the evacuation order read.
