CROSS CITY, Fla. (AP) — An elderly man who was cleaning debris from Hurricane Idalia in north Florida when a tree fell on him has been declared the state's third death from the Category 3 storm, officials said Thursday.
The 90-year-old man died Tuesday in Dixie County after a tree fell on a tractor he was operating, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Hurricane Idalia made landfall with 125 mph (201 kph) winds across the state in Florida’s remote .
Other Idalia-related deaths in Florida confirmed by the state’s 25 local district medical examiners are a man who died in a traffic crash near Gainesville hours before Idalia made landfall on Aug. 30 and a windsurfer who went missing that same day off Florida's Space Coast.
A man in Valdosta, Georgia, also died when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another tree out of the road, according to the Lowndes County Sheriff Office.