Fort Myers Beach feeling impact of Hurricane Idalia

Fort Myers Beach is starting to see the effects of Hurricane Idalia continuing its progression through the Gulf of Mexico.

According to Fort Myers Beach, the town issued a local state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Idalia.

Water levels from canals aren’t too bad as of 3:30 p.m. There hasn’t been much water washing ashore from storm surge.

Times Square saw a lot of water earlier in the afternoon, but the drainage system did its job. The water has since receded. Times Square is looking much better than it did when it was engulfed by water around 1 p.m.

Similarly, the roadways are doing pretty well. Although, during the tornado warnings at around 1:30 p.m. the roads didn’t look as good. Despite getting soaked from the rain, storm surge hasn’t been much of a factor impacting the roads as of 3:30 p.m.

WINK News spoke with Fort Myers Beach resident Frank Pataky about the storm and how he is preparing.

“I’m not really worried about it because every day they kept moving it more west, and I used to be an air traffic controller so I know a lot about the weather, so I knew Sunday night with Ian how bad it was gonna be because it kept moving further south, and that’s when I decided to move my car. I just had a bad, bad feeling about that one,” said Pataky.

WINK News is at the scene and will bring you continuous updates on Hurricane Idalia’s progression and impacts.