VIDEO: Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning as a powerful Category 3 storm in Keaton Beach, located along Florida's Gulf Coast near Tallahassee. After rapidly intensifying on its path through the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and briefly registering as a Category 4 storm, the hurricane hit Florida's Big Bend area with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour.
The storm was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane about 2 1/2 hours after landfall, as wind speeds decreased to 90 mph. The hurricane rating was previously changed to Category 2 roughly an hour after landfall.
Meteorologists warned "damaging winds" were already spreading into southern Georgia. The center of Idalia was crossing over the border into Georgia by 11 a.m. ET, the hurricane center said, adding that the storm continued to drive up water levels along Florida's Gulf Coast.