Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida Wednesday, hitting the state’s Big Bend region as a Category 3 hurricane. Luckily, it should be less impactful for the hotel industry in Florida than Hurricane Ian in 2022.
It’s the first major storm to hit the region — which is southeast of Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, but well north of Tampa — since Hurricane Easy in 1950, the Associated Press reports.
Idalia reached maximum winds of 125 mph, and the marsh area faced a projected storm surge of up to 15 feet, the AP reports. The hurricane also reached Georgia on Wednesday and passed through the Carolinas overnight as a tropical storm.
Strong winds knocked out power in parts of southern Georgia and the Carolinas. The water level at the Charleston Harbor exceeded 9 feet, which is the fifth-highest water level ever recorded.
In Pasco County, north of Tampa, officials say about 6,000 homes were "inundated with water."
More than 2,000 flights have been delayed and more than 1,000 have been canceled across the U.S. due to Idalia, according to reports from Forbes and the Washington Post. The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that places not directly affected by the hurricane may have some adjustments as well, so travelers should check in with their airlines.
CNN reports the first deaths related to the storm occurred Wednesday after at least two men were killed in separate car accidents.
Cuba is also suffering flooding and damage from Idalia.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday he has offered governors across the Southeast “anything their states need” to respond to the storm, CNN reports.
Speaking on the country’s recent natural disasters, Biden added: “I don’t think anybody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore.”
Idalia's Impact on Hotel Industry
The “Big Bend” area of Florida is where the peninsula of the state connects to the panhandle, said Daryl Cronk, director of hospitality analytics for the southeastern U.S. The area is less developed and more rural compared to areas to the west along the Emerald Coast toward Panama City and Pensacola as well as to the southwest with destinations such as Fort Myers and Naples.
The area doesn’t offer much in beaches, but it does have some state parks and some camping options, Cronk said.
“It’s certainly less a beach destination, less of a resort destination than some of the other coastal areas of Florida,” he said.
Following landfall, the path of the hurricane traveled over areas with lower population density, and there was less hotel volume than in major tourist destinations and urban markets, Cronk said.
“The impact, while still dramatic for those in the area, should be less impactful for the overall hotel industry in Florida than [Hurricane] Ian was last year just based on where it made landfall,” he said.
With Hurricane Idalia hitting and passing over areas with fewer hotels, this also means there are fewer hotels to host anyone coming down to the area to address storm damage, such as utility crews.
“If they’re sending in power-line crews to do the repair work, they’re going to be spread out in little interstate-location hotels all over the place while they try to get their work done,” Cronk said.
With hurricanes, usually the risk along coastal areas involves storm surges that push ocean water onto shore, even after passing over land, he said. For the areas around Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, there’s still the possibility of storm surges as the circular winds around the hurricane push waves back toward the shore.
One silver lining with Hurricane Idalia is that it was a faster-moving storm, Cronk said. Past hurricanes, such as Ian and Harvey, moved more slowly, so they dumped a lot of rainfall over the locations they passed over.
“[Harvey] just drowned Houston,” Cronk said. “They had severe flooding issues because the storm just sat and moved so slowly. In that regard, if we can get Idalia out of here faster, that helps reduce some of the flooding risk.”