COLUMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — Hurricane Idalia’s winds blew power lines down and toppled trees leaving around 75 percent of people in Columbia County, Florida without electricity Wednesday night.
One house in the Oak Haven neighborhood outside of Lake City had 8 – 10 trees fall.
Downed trees now cover a good chunk of Abby Hill’s yard. By Wednesday afternoon, she couldn't drive her car down the driveway because it was blocked by trees.
"It’s covered one way or another," Hill said.
When Hurricane Idalia started roaring through Columbia County in the middle of the night, she couldn’t see the storm because it was dark – but she could hear it.
"It was the sound of the trees falling," she said. "Just that sound is so eerie when you hear that crack!"
At daybreak, she and her husband saw several big trees had fallen into their yard.
"Some of them that fell were really close to the house, within feet," Hill noted.
First Coast News measured that the nearest tree was just 12 feet from her home.
But Hill and her husband, house, and cars are fine. It’s a wake-up call that hurricanes – especially major ones – don’t just damage the coastline.
"I think sometimes we forget us folks out here that 50 miles inland, we can have damage as well," Hill said.
For that matter, "it could really be anywhere in Florida."