Idalia aftermath shows downed power lines, flooding and damaged homes | USA TODAY

Downgraded to a tropical storm, what had been Hurricane Idalia powered across southeastern Georgia and the Carolinas on Wednesday evening after making landfall earlier along Florida's Big Bend as a Category 3 tropical cyclone and driving "catastrophic" storm surge and flooding for hundreds of miles.

As of 5 p.m., the storm's center was located 115 miles west-southwest of Charleston, South Carolina, heading northeast at 21 mph with sustained winds of 70 mph