As Category 3 Hurricane Idalia bears down on Florida, airports in Tampa and St. Petersburg have been closed — but flights from Orlando were arriving at Boston's Logan International Airport Wednesday.
Travelers may be heading to Boston to make a last-minute sprint out of the hurricane's path.
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Experts said that Idalia could bring "life-threatening storm surges" to parts of the state, with three to five inches of rain and winds over 100 mph.
There were already reports of flooding in the Tampa Bay area early Wednesday, and nearly half of the Sunshine State's 67 counties were under some type of evacuation order. President Joe Biden signed a state of emergency to send resources to Florida.
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Meanwhile, in the Bay State, Massachusetts Task Force One is sending six members to Florida's Big Bend region, while the American Red Cross is deploying its emergency vehicles based in Boston and Springfield to stage in Tampa.
"Anytime you see a hurricane in the Gulf, you know it’s going to hit somewhere in the United States," Jeff Hall with the American Red Cross of Massachusetts said. "So, we’re just trying to get ahead and as prepared as we can when landfall happens.”
While some New Englanders may be trying to find a flight out of Florida, one Dorchester native living in Tampa said she's hunkering down and riding out the storm.
"The biggest thing is because of the baby, wanna hide from wind and run from rain," Deon Bent said. "Essentially so the storm surges, but we’re mostly concerned with not so much that hurricane itself.”
