'We're probably going to lose everything': The Florida residents in the eye of Tropical Storm Idalia

Millions of Florida residents have faced devastation after Tropical Storm Idalia ravaged the state, as US Correspondent Dan Rivers reports.

Words by US Correspondent Dan Rivers and Washington Editor Jonathan WaldWe arrived at the small hotel in Crystal River before Idalia’s full force was unleashed.

Most businesses here had shuttered their premises and this hotel was only accepting media and emergency workers. Pictures of manatees decorated the reception.

This small town is renowned as one of the best places in Florida to see the creatures in the normally clear waters. But within hours this little harbour had been transformed by the surging power of a category 4 hurricane, fuelled by unusually warm waters to produce at least 130 mile per hour winds.

I woke at six in the morning to howling squalls and lashing rain outside. But more alarming were the rising waters creeping across the hotel carpark as I watched.

Most people had left this area but a few residents had hung on, hoping to save their homes from the worst of it. The speed of the inundation caught many by surprise.

Opposite our hotel I met Suzanne Lambert and John Lloyd wading through the deepening water, to see if their house had been flooded. Turbid liquid was already lapping at the front step.

Their neighbour, Chanda Kline, emerged from her single storey home, carrying a dog. As she carefully picked her way through the knee high water, it was clear she was scared by the suddenly changing landscape.

The water was already seeping into her living room and there was no time to salvage anything other than herself and her pet.

I’d watched as a massive tree in her front garden had cracked and fallen earlier. It splashed into the water before I could get my phone out to video it. Now the water had swallowed her garden and was slowly, insidiously creeping into her home.

"We're probably going to lose everything. But we're just trying to get our dogs out, and get to somewhere safe", Chanda told me.

As we waded back to our hotel across the street, it became clear we too were now stranded. Our car was parked on the highest spot we could find, but there was no stopping this flood.

I scanned the scene for a point of a reference: a stone angel in the garden of Suzanne and John’s house had been well clear of the water when we were talking to them. Soon it was almost completely submerged.

The storm surge had coincided with a king tide here: literally a once in a blue moon event, meaning higher tides than normal caused by the normal lunar cycle.

Just as I was wondering if we would have to swim back to our car, it appeared the waters had peaked. The angel started her re-emergence from the foul waters and the wind started to ease. Our little island of accommodation gradually re-connected to the rest of the hotel grounds.

It had been a frightening insight into the speed and power of a storm surge and a reminder that it is not just the exceptional winds which make hurricanes so dangerous. It is their capacity to literally reshape the coast.

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