Hurricane Idalia: A town-by-town look at how our North Florida neighbors persevered

Tallahassee, which was bracing for  a direct hit from Hurricane Idalia , managed to escape widespread destruction as the storm wobbled east before slamming into the Taylor County coast.

Idalia, which briefly became  a major Category 4 hurricane , made landfall around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, near Keaton Beach, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It marked the first hit  from a major hurricane  to the Apalachee Bay coastline since weather record-keeping began in 1851.

With the capital city mostly spared, Tallahassee Democrat reporters and photojournalists fanned out across the hardest-hit communities along the Big Bend to chronicle the damage, aftermath and cleanup.

Here are the stories of our struggling North Florida neighbors.

Completely in the dark for days, neighbors put Madison 'back together' after Idalia

Wednesday afternoon, the growl of chainsaws could be heard throughout the town of Madison. Once residents cleared their own driveways and secured their homes, they moved on to their neighbors, then their neighbor's families and friends.

"This community has always come together, and I expect nothing but the same this time," Price Harris, the Madison County football coach, said outside of his parents' house while wiping sweat off his forehead. "Anytime you have a tragedy, it always brings the best out of people."

Harris is used to asking the community for help, but he's never had to beg. All it takes is a Facebook post or one call to get back-to-school clothes or food for his players.

The residents are straightforward about the systemic struggles in the county. There's always a fundraiser or a chicken perloo dinner to raise money for a needy family or local cause. 

But it's about community, not just obligation.

— Ana Goñi-Lessan and Liam Rooney

As Jefferson County goes dark after Idalia, there's power in 'people helping people'

With so many powerless in Jefferson County after Idalia swept through the Big Bend, volunteers and elected officials pulled together to provide meals and water for residents.

"We haven't had a disaster like this before and we're learning a lot from it," Jefferson County Manager Shannon Metty told the Tallahassee Democrat. "I think we were prepared beforehand for some sort of disaster and it's actually coming together pretty well. This community is good at taking care of each other so I'm proud of it."

— Alaijah Brown

Married couple who nearly died during Hurricane Idalia tell a story of community and family

In Cross City, a small town in the middle of Dixie County, couple John Williams and Jessica Shyer watched the storm from their front porch. At around 6 a.m., Shyer noticed an 80-foot water oak near their cars "wiggling almost like a loose tooth."

She ran inside to get her keys, but she tripped in the process. If not for that, she would've been in the Kia when the tree crushed it and the truck.

Her husband, still on the porch, watched that happen. The tree's thud shook the earth, and he saw "the brightest blue light you could possibly imagine." The tree took the electric line out, ripping away a chunk of roof in the process. The live wire slapped the earth beside his feet. 

Had there been standing water, Williams believes he would have been electrocuted. 

— Douglas Soule

'Cedar Key is strong': Despite Idalia destruction, residents pull together to rebuild

From Cedar Key commissioners to local neighbors, hundreds of volunteers were hard at work determined to get the city back in order.

"It's quite amazing to see people you know that suffered loss not worried about themselves, to help the elderly and people who have lost more," said Trace Epperson, a local carpenter. "We're a tight-knit community. We take care of one another, and we're always going to be there for each other."

— Douglas Soule

'Dead chickens all over': Hurricane Idalia ransacks farmlands in Suwannee County

In Suwannee County, Idalia knocked down trees and power lines from Live Oak, the county seat, to Branford, a small town on the Suwannee River, and unincorporated towns in between. It dealt a severe blow to the county's agriculture industry, its chief economic engine, leaving farm equipment, fences and crops in shambles.

Larry Sessions, city manager of Live Oak, estimated that Idalia killed millions of chickens and that an untold number would have to be euthanized. The storm wrecked numerous chicken houses and knocked out electricity to cooling fans, leaving them to die in the heat.

— Jeff Burlew

Idalia swamped their homes. They still dropped everything to try and put out a house fire

The hurricane had damaged or destroyed their own Suwannee homes. But when a two-story house on a small peninsula surrounded by the Suwannee caught fire — just one day after Idalia hit — they dropped everything to work together and fight it.

Neighbors brought buckets and fire extinguishers, and workers from a local landscaping company tried to use a water pump as an improvised fire hose.

— Douglas Soule

'Gone in a flash': Steinhatchee residents cope after Idalia devastates Big Bend towns

Residents in the small, coastal town of Steinhatchee who are used to the unpredictability of a storm shrugged their shoulders and prepared the best they could as Hurricane Idalia steadily marched their way.

No stranger to Florida's inclement weather, Charlie Norwood, the owner of the small town's landmark Sea Hag Marina, said Idalia was unlike any other storm he'd seen. 

An unstoppable storm surge, which Norwood estimated to be at least six feet, flooded his store and destroyed his docks.

All it took was 15 minutes.

"It was gone in a flash," he said.

— Elena Barrera

Perry after Idalia: 'Tree Capital of the South' becomes a 'tarp village'

About 48 hours after Idalia uprooted trees and downed power lines in a town of 7,000, Taylor County resident of 78 years Jerry Wells summed up the situation:

"If you don't have a generator, you are going to be in deep trouble," he said. 

In 1965, then-Gov. Haydon Burns cited 525,000 forested acres in Taylor County to proclaim Perry "The Tree Capital of the South." 

After Idalia, just west of Perry, the tops of rows of six-foot pines tilt to the northeast, pointing to the storm's path. Within 30 miles, pine straw, limbs, debris and downed power lines appear along U.S. 98. Ten miles out, power poles are broken into pieces and uprooted trees litter yards. In the city, the sides of roads and sidewalks are blocked by neat piles of sawed pine and oak trunks. 

— James Call

Gov. DeSantis sees upside to loss of historic oak, split in half by Hurricane Idalia

While overseeing Florida's response to Hurricane Idalia at the state emergency operations center, Gov. Ron DeSantis received word from First Lady Casey DeSantis that the storm split in half a century oak tree in the front yard of the Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee. 

Gov. DeSantis had few details about the incident while discussing it with reporters. The veteran oak stood to the right of the mansion, and in the early afternoon it appeared workers were clearing it from the front yard.  

"If they do cut down the whole tree that's just going to be more room for my kids to hit baseballs in, so in some respect for us, even though the tree was nice, we will probably be quite alright," said DeSantis. 

— James Call

Small town of Mayo digging out after Idalia buries it in debris

Idalia brought outsized destruction and lingering power outages to Lafayette County, Florida's second-smallest county, and the small town of Mayo.

Lisa Walker, a Lafayette County commissioner, said the county lost countless trees and a handful of houses, leaving between six to 10 people homeless. The sheer amount of fallen timber left numerous roads and driveways impassable.

She said Lafayette County, a farming community with only one red light, two schools and a state prison, largely fended for itself in the immediate aftermath of Idalia. Residents with tractors and chainsaws and businesses with bulldozers and skidders cleared pathways street by street and house by house.

— Jeff Burlew

Hurricane Idalia in Leon County: A 'meteorological sneeze' separates fortune from utter ruin

Idalia could have marked the first time on record that Leon County ever saw sustained hurricane-strength winds. Instead, the county saw a peak gust of 55 mph.

"I do believe that it was a historic storm for the Big Bend area," Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey said. "It looks like when it hit landfall it jogged a little bit east, which spared us a little bit, which is great news for Tallahassee."

— Jeff Burlew, Elena Barrera, Ana Goñi-Lessan

Once in a blue moon: How a rare lunar event sent post-landfall surge into Wakulla County

Hurricane Idalia spared Wakulla County from catastrophic storm surge when it zigged to the east – but the storm, combined with a rare super blue moon, conjured unusual post-landfall flooding at the coast.

Idalia hit Keaton Beach around 7:45 a.m., which coincided with low tide. Its off-shore winds actually blew the water away from the Wakulla coast. About an hour after landfall, the water at Shell Point was minus more than 3 feet.

But that quickly changed and by 1 p.m., water levels had risen to 3 to 4 feet above dry land along the Wakulla Coast. Several hours later, it was gone again.

Two factors caused the post-landfall surge, Kelly Godsey of the National Weather Service in Tallahassee said: The mere presence of Idalia in the shallow Apalachee Bay, which tends to rise whenever a storm is in the northern Gulf, and the full super blue moon, which saw it closer to the earth than any other day this year.

— Jeff Burlew

More Florida coverage from the USA TODAY Network

➜ Horseshoe Beach hell: Idalia's wrath leaves tiny Florida town's homes, history in ruins

A seaside town in Florida lost homes, a hotel and some of its quaint charm in Idalia's rampage. But locals are pushing for a new beginning.

➜ 'Here to help': President Biden, first lady land in Gainesville, survey Idalia damage

President Biden and the First Lady were in Florida on Saturday, Sept. 2, to assess Hurricane Idalia damage. There won't be any meeting with Gov. Ron DeSantis.

➜ Flamingo fallout: Iconic pink birds showing up all over the East Coast after Idalia

Flamingos have been spotted in eight states from Florida to Virginia after Hurricane Idalia came through last week. Will they stay?

➜ How big was Hurricane Idalia? Compare its size at landfall to other storms

Though the storm was not a perfect circle, Idalia spanned nearly 350 miles across, an area about the size of Colorado, which measures 380 miles across. 

How to help

• Donate to the  Red Cross by visiting  redcross.org , calling 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767) or texting the word IDALIA to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Sign up to volunteer at  www.redcross.org/VolunteerToday .

• Help feed those in the strike zone through  Second Harvest of the Big Bend at  FightingHunger.org/Idalia .

• Donate to the  United Way of the Big Bend at  uwbb.org/disaster-relief-fund  or text RELIEF2023 to 41444.

Already a subscriber? Thank you! If not, please consider subscribing and supporting local journalism like this.  Click here to learn more.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Hurricane Idalia: A collection of our stories from Florida's Big Bend