Florida braces for Hurricane Idalia's landfall #Shorts

Florida residents are preparing as tropical storm Idalia has strengthened into a hurricane.

The Category 1 storm was expected to "rapidly intensify into an extremely dangerous major hurricane" before striking Florida on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said. Extremely warm waters in the Gulf were fueling Idalia, which now has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.

Residents along the Gulf Coast loaded up on sandbags and evacuated from homes in low-lying areas along the coast Monday as Idalia intensified.