Hurricane Debby Makes Landfall in Florida as Category 1 Storm
Storm expected to bring heavy rain and catastrophic flooding to southeast
Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida as a Category 1 storm, where it is expected to bring dangerous flooding to the southeast Atlantic coast.
The storm arrived early Monday in the Big Bend region of Florida, near Steinhatchee with maximum winds estimated at around 80 miles an hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Heavy rain and powerful winds could create storm surges topping 6 to 10 feet in areas north of Tampa Bay and into the Panhandle region, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday.
Coastal Georgia and South Carolina could see as much as 30 inches of rain beginning Tuesday, as the storm slows and moves eastward over Florida. It is expected to hover over the southeast Atlantic coast and may produce record-setting rainfall, Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said at a briefing Sunday.
“We are very confident we are going to have a slow-moving system that’s going to result in multiple days of very, very heavy rainfall,” Brennan said. Tropical storm conditions are possible along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts through Thursday, according to the forecast.
Catastrophic flooding may occur midweek, said the center, which issued its highest level alert for flash flooding along the low-lying coastal areas between Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Savannah, Ga. Flooding impacts could last through Friday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged residents on the state’s west coast to prepare for hurricane-like conditions as the storm moved over the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday.
“It’s going to drop a lot of rain across the northern part of the state. You are going to be at risk of flooding,” the governor said. “There will be power outages.”
About 205,000 customers in Florida were without power as of Monday morning, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued in some Gulf Coast counties while others called for voluntary evacuations ahead of what meteorologists said could be “life threatening storm-surge inundation” in places.
There is also potential for isolated tornadoes across the western and northern parts of Florida through Monday, forecasters said.
Debby is the fourth named storm this hurricane season and the second hurricane following Beryl, which reached Category 5 status early last month.