Residents return to find homes gone, towns devastated in path of Idalia

Tropical Storm Idalia's path of destruction through four states has left behind it shattered towns and shocked residents, even as it missed many urban areas

HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. -- Hurricanes and tropical storms are nothing new in the South, but the sheer magnitude of damage from Idalia shocked Desmond Roberson as he toured what as left of his Georgia neighborhood.

Roberson took a drive through Valdosta on Thursday with a friend to check out damage after the storm, which first hit Florida as a hurricane and then weakened into a tropical storm as it made its way north, ripped through the town of 55,000.

On one street, he said, a tree had fallen on nearly every house. Roads remained blocked by tree trunks and downed power lines, and traffic lights were still blacked out at major intersections.

“It’s a maze,” Roberson said. “I had to turn around three times, just because roads were blocked off.”

The storm had 90 mph (145 kph) winds when it made a direct hit on Valdosta on Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said.

“We’re fortunate this storm was a narrow one, and it was fast moving and didn’t sit on us,” Kemp told a news conference Thursday in Atlanta. “But if you were in the path, it was devastating. And we’re responding that way.”

One Georgia resident was killed when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another tree from a road.