North Carolina prepares for Idalia as it nears landfall in Florida

RALEIGH, N.C. — Hurricane Idalia strengthened to a dangerous Category 4 storm Wednesday morning as it steams toward Florida’s Big Bend region and threatens to unleash life-threatening storm surges and rainfall.

Authorities are warning of a “catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds” when Idalia hits Florida.

Residents in vulnerable coastal areas had been ordered to pack up and leave as the storm gained steam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.

Idalia was packing sustained winds of 120 mph early Wednesday.

The hurricane was projected to come ashore later Wednesday morning as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of at least 130 mph in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula.

Idalia will lift northeast across Savannah, Georgia, later Wednesday to a position along the Carolina coast Thursday.

Heavy rain and gusty winds from Idalia will move into the area late today and especially overnight. Flash flooding will be possible across eastern and southeastern portions of the state. A flood watch in effect from later today through Thursday evening.

This path will spare the Triangle the worst of this storm with the northwest flank producing rains of 1-3 inches along with gusty winds.

Getting Prepared

As Idalia moves up the east coast towards NC, teams across the state are getting prepared for whatever comes our way.

The state emergency response team and the Emergency Operations Center will activate in just a few hours at 9 a.m. Officials are urging people to prepare now.

Governor Roy Cooper has already declared a state of emergency.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation says they already have 2,300 employees across the state ready to respond. They started checking well-known trouble spots Tuesday in preparation for heavy rainfall, clearing drains and basins.

Duke Energy said with a lot of rain and wind there could be downed trees and downed power lines.

“A lot of that depends on the timing of, of rain that comes with it, how much rain you get, how much when you get in combination because that ground gets softer, that can help to topple trees as the wind comes through,” Jeff Brooks said who is a spokesperson for Duke Energy.

Governor Cooper and other emergency management officials will make an announcement later this afternoon to provide an update on the storm.

At The Coast

Tuesday was a nearly perfect beach day, but that will change in a matter of hours as Idalia moves up toward the NC coast.

The Town of Wrightsville Beach is offering a supply of sand for locals to make sand bags.

Several boaters pulled their boats from the water.

ABC11 spoke with one family who is trying to prepare for the storm, but is finding it harder than they thought.

“They were going to try to cut their vacation short, but they can’t. So they might have to delay it. Hopefully. Even if I have to drive them all the way to Raleigh or somewhere else to catch a flight. That’s what we have to do coming in the next day or so. I mean, a lot of them. Yeah. Well, I just hope the electricity doesn’t go,” Annarita Dorais said.