Watch live: Hurricane Idalia makes landfall

Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 3 tropical cyclone with sustained winds at 125 mph projected to drive “catastrophic” storm surge, the National Hurricane Center said.

Radar imagery indicate the eye of Idalia made landfall along the coast of Florida’s Big Bend near Keaton Beachin Taylor County around 7:45 a.m., the center said.

“Catastrophic storm surge occurring along the coast of the Florida Big Bend and damaging winds spreading inland over northern Florida,” the center said in its 9 am. update. Idalia was reported to be speeding north-northeast at 18 mph.

Idalia ranks among the 20 most powerful storms to make landfall in Florida since modern recordkeeping began more than a century ago, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The weather service in Tallahassee described the storm as an “unprecedented event,” saying no major hurricane − Category 3 or higher − had ever slammed the Big Bend’s Apalachee Bay.

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