Xinhua news agency reports that a state TV broadcast has indicated that over 300,000 individuals in Cuba's western provinces were left without electricity.
Xinhua news agency reported that Southwest Airlines, with a significant presence in the US state of Florida, canceled more than 200 flights on Wednesday, as indicated by data from the flight-tracking service FlightAware.
When it made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday, Idalia became the first major hurricane to reach Apalachee Bay since modern record-keeping began in 1851.
Citing the US National Hurricane Center, Xinhua news agency reported that the hurricane was predicted to intensify into an "extremely dangerous major hurricane," impacting the Gulf Coast.