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Man who crashed car hours before Hurricane Idalia's landfall is fourth Florida death

Officials say a fatal single-vehicle crash just hours before Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida has been declared the state’s fourth death from the Category 3 storm

Via AP news wire
Monday 11 September 2023 23:22 BST
Tropical Weather Uneven Recovery
Tropical Weather Uneven Recovery (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

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A fatal single-vehicle crash just hours before Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida has been declared the state's fourth death from the Category 3 storm, officials said Monday.

A 40-year-old man driving in heavy rain went off the roadway and hit a tree near Dade City in the Tampa Bay area on Aug. 30, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Hurricane Idalia made landfall later that morning 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, a windsurfer who went missing that same day off Florida's Space Coast and an older adult who was struck by a falling tree after the storm passed while clearing debris with a tractor.

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.

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