Hurricane Idalia has made landfall in Florida, where flooding is already being reported. WUFT's Elliot Tritto spoke with Michela Gray, a recent Florida State graduate and teacher who lives in Tallahassee.
Elliot Tritto: You told me that there was something wrong with the shelter, or one of the high schools, that some of the doors came off. What's going on with that?
Michela Gray: My partner's family has the local television station on right now and one of the high school not terribly far from my apartment, they reported that the doors flew open, um, to the high school, which is acting as a storm shelter and that they were trying to secure them. But the fact that that is happening and the hurricane really isn't anywhere near us yet is, it's a little concerning.
Tritto: How are you feeling right now?
Gray: Um, okay. I will admit I probably got an hour and a half of sleep last night. This is my first hurricane on my own. I grew up in South Florida, so I'm no stranger to hurricanes. But I am recently graduated from college. My brother just moved in to a dorm, so I'm looking out for him, my partner, his family.
It's been a lot. I'm just waiting for the wind and the rain to come to Tallahassee because it really hasn't yet. We're, we still have power for now, but not for much longer.
Tritto: Okay, is there anything else you want to tell us like what you're seeing like outside of your apartment or what you're currently seeing right now?
Gray: Yeah, so currently I'm about 20 minutes on the other side of town, but it's been gusting for the last hour or so. We don't have any fallen trees as of yet or a whole lot of debris. There's a bird hanging outside the window. So we're... We're still waiting for it to hit here.
Tritto: So, uh, just tell me what you just saw.
Gray: We just got a pretty big wind gust. The place I'm currently at, we are surrounded by some thin trees. No big oaks or anything like that. But the trees all around me just bend and curve. These trees are stories high and they're just bending left and right. You can hear the trees creaking and the leaves are just swaying in the wind.
The storm is here.