Man struck by tree while cleaning hurricane debris is third Florida death from Hurricane Idalia

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.

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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.

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Hurricane Idalia made landfall with 125 mph winds across the state in Florida’s remote Big Bend region.

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.

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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’s Office.

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