The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Idalia is intensifying and expected to become a major hurricane before it reaches Florida's Gulf coast.
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00:00 As of 0800 today, 90 miles south of Cuba,
00:05 tropical storm Idalia continues to gather strength.
00:08 It will become a hurricane today,
00:12 and it is forecast to reach landfall
00:14 as a major hurricane, a category three.
00:17 I think it's important to point out,
00:19 if we were sitting here three days ago,
00:22 a lot of people thought it would end up
00:23 being a tropical storm.
00:24 Then they said, well, maybe a category one.
00:27 Then yesterday it was, oh, maybe it'll hit cat two.
00:30 Now, there really doesn't seem anything
00:32 to prevent it from continuing to strengthen.
00:35 And we've seen this before
00:36 with something like Hurricane Michael
00:38 that continued to gather strength.
00:40 So this is gonna be a major impact,
00:43 and Floridians should expect that this storm
00:46 will be a major cat three plus hurricane.
00:50 So please prepare accordingly.
00:51 The National Hurricane Center
00:53 currently has hurricane watches in effect
00:56 for the Gulf Coast from Sarasota County
00:58 all the way up to Franklin County in Northwestern Florida.