Man struck by tree while cleaning hurricane debris is third Florida death from Hurricane Idalia

Officials say an elderly man who was cleaning debris from Hurricane Idalia in north Florida when a tree fell on him has been declared the state’s third death from the Category 3 storm

Tropical Weather Uneven Recovery (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

An elderly man who was cleaning debris from Hurricane Idalia in north Florida when a tree fell on him has been declared the state's third death from the Category 3 storm, officials said Thursday.

The 90-year-old man died Tuesday in Dixie County after a tree fell on a tractor he was operating, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Hurricane Idalia made landfall with 125 mph (201 kph) winds across the state in Florida’s remote Big Bend region.

Other Idalia-related deaths in Florida confirmed by the state’s 25 local district medical examiners are a man who died in a traffic crash near Gainesville hours before Idalia made landfall on Aug. 30 and a windsurfer who went missing that same day off Florida's Space Coast.

A man in Valdosta, Georgia, also died when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another tree out of the road, according to the Lowndes County Sheriff Office.