Idalia, now a tropical storm, touched down in Florida as a Category 3 hurricane.
Idalia touched down in Florida's Big Bend region on Wednesday morning as a powerful Category 3 hurricane -- the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in the Apalachee Bay.
Idalia has since weakened into a tropical storm and moved inland over Georgia and the Carolinas.
Idalia made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region on Wednesday morning as an "extremely dangerous" Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds near 125 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm touched down near Keaton Beach at around 7:45 a.m. ET.
-ABC News' Max Golembo
More than 99,000 customers were without power in Florida on Wednesday morning as Hurricane Idalia closed in on the Sunshine State.
As of 7:02 a.m. ET, there were 99,307 Florida customers without power, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us.
-ABC News' Mariama Jalloh
Idalia was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday morning as the storm approached Florida and its maximum sustained winds weakened slightly from 130 to 125 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
A Category 4 hurricane begins at 130 mph winds.
“This change in wind speed does not diminish the threat of catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds,” the National Weather Service warned in its latest advisory.
-ABC News' Max Golembo
During a press conference at 6:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Hurricane Idalia is expected to make landfall in Taylor County in the Big Bend region in the next two hours.
The Category 4 hurricane is forecast to touch down in Keaton Beach, about 75 miles southeast of Tallahassee, according to Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
DeSantis said a "life-threatening" storm surge of up to 16 feet could hit the Big Bend region.
"If you end up with storm surge that even approaches that 16 feet, the chance of surviving that is not great," the governor warned.
There is currently a 2 to 3 foot storm surge in Tampa and a 4 foot storm surge in Cedar Key. The storm surge is expected to increase over the next few hours, Guthrie said.
The hurricane impact will reach far from the eyeball, potentially as far as Tallahassee and northeastern Florida. Search and rescue teams will be deployed across the state once the winds die down, according to the governor.
DeSantis urged people in the storm’s path to not "put your life at risk by doing anything dumb at this point."
"This thing is powerful," he said. "If you're inside, just hunker down until it gets past you. You don't want to be messing around with these winds. There's going to be things flying all over the place."
His warning was abruptly interrupted by the lights going out at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, where the press briefing was held.
"And there we go with our power here,” he said, before the lights flickered back on.
-ABC News' Victoria Arancio and Will McDuffie
