Hurricane Debby hits as a Cat 1 hurricane

Cedar Key sees waves crash on the sea wall from Hurricane Debby. Image via AP.

Hurricane Debby continues Hurricane Debby has made landfall Monday morning in northern Florida as a Category 1 storm..

As of the 7 a.m. Monday update from the National Hurricane Center, the storm has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. A Cat 1 hurricane means winds will blow harder than 75 mph.

The storm made landfall in Steinhatchee, a tiny community of less than 1,000 residents in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The storm made landfall in one of the least populated areas of Florida, but forecasters warned heavy rain could spawn catastrophic flooding in Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. The storm was moving northeast at 10 mph (17 kph), the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Nearly 214,000 customers were without power in Florida on Monday morning, according to PowerOutage.com.

Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.

Hurricane conditions are expected in the hurricane warning area and are possible in the hurricane watch area by early Monday, with tropical storm conditions expected to arrive later this evening and overnight. Tropical storm conditions will continue to spread northward over the tropical storm warning area along the Florida Gulf coast through tonight and begin along portions of the tropical storm warning area along the Atlantic coast by late Monday. Tropical storm conditions are possible along the coast of South Carolina within the tropical storm watch area late Monday night.

Swells generated by Debby could affect much of the Gulf Coast of Florida through Monday. Swells will be seen on the Southeast U.S. coast on Monday and continue through the middle of the week. These conditions are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

Meteorologists expected landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida north of Cedar Key. The storm will weaken on Monday and Tuesday as Debby moves inland.

From there, the storm is expected to travel eastward over northern Florida and then stall over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, drenching the region with the potential of record-setting rains totaling up to 30 inches starting Tuesday.

“There’s some really amazing rainfall totals being forecast and amazing in a bad way,” Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said Sunday at a briefing. “That would be record-breaking rainfall associated with a tropical cyclone for both the states of Georgia and South Carolina if we got up to the 30-inch level.”

The flooding impacts, which could last through Friday, are expected to be especially severe in low-lying areas near the coast, including Savannah, Georgia; Hilton Head, South Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina. Debby is expected to produce rainfall totals of 6 to 12 inches, with maximum amounts of 18 inches, across portions of northern Florida and southeastern North Carolina through Friday morning. This rainfall will likely result in areas of considerable flash and urban flooding, with significant river flooding expected.

The storm was moving north-northwest at 12 mph with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, up from 50 mph just a day prior ago.

“I’d urge all Floridians to be cognizant of the fact that we are going to have a hurricane hit the state, probably a Category 1, but it could be a little bit more powerful than that,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Sunday morning briefing.

DeSantis said that, for the first time, constructed flood control devices are being placed at utility stations to minimize the risk of power interruptions caused by flooding.

“We think that is going to be able to mitigate some of the power outages,” DeSantis said.

Meanwhile, wind and thunderstorms have spread over a broad area, including southern Florida, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas.

Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season after Tropical Storm Alberto, Hurricane Beryl and Tropical Storm Chris, all of which formed in June.

A hurricane warning was issued for parts of the Big Bend and the Florida Panhandle, while tropical storm warnings were posted for Florida’s West Coast, the southern Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas. A tropical storm watch extended farther west into the Panhandle. A warning means storm conditions are expected within 36 hours, while a watch means they are possible within 48 hours.

Tropical storms and hurricanes can trigger river flooding and overwhelm drainage systems and canals. Debby could bring as much as 6 to 12 inches (150 mm to 300 mm) of rain and up to 18 inches (450 mm) in isolated areas of Florida, which could create “locally considerable” flash and urban flooding. Forecasters also warned of moderate flooding for some rivers along Florida’s West Coast.

Flat Florida is prone to flooding even on sunny days, and the storm was predicted to bring a surge of 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 meters) along most of the Gulf Coast, including Tampa Bay, with a storm tide of up to 7 feet (2.1 meters) north of there in the sparsely populated Big Bend region.

Forecasters warned of “a danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation” in a region that includes Hernando Beach, Crystal River, Steinhatchee and Cedar Key. Officials in Citrus and Levy counties ordered a mandatory evacuation of coastal areas, while those in Hernando, Manatee, Pasco and Taylor counties called for voluntary evacuations. Shelters opened in those and some other counties.

Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast estimated 21,000 people live in his county’s evacuation zone. Officials rescued 73 people from storm surge flooding during last year’s Hurricane Idalia. Prendergast said by phone that he hopes not to have a repeat with Debby.

“After the storm surge does come in, we simply don’t have enough first responders in our agency and among the other first responders in the county to go in and rescue everybody that might need to be rescued,” he said.

DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 61 of Florida’s 67 counties, with the National Guard activating 3,000 guard members. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp made his own emergency proclamation on Saturday.

The White House said federal and Florida officials were in touch, and FEMA “pre-positioned” resources, including water and food.

In Tampa alone, officials gave out more than 30,000 sandbags to barricade against flooding.

“We’ve got our stormwater drains cleared out. We’ve got our generators all checked and full. We’re doing everything that we need to be prepared to face a tropical storm,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said.

Florida State University in Tallahassee will be closed Monday due to the storm, the school announced.

On Friday, crews pulled floating cranes away from a bridge construction project across Tampa Bay, lashing together 74 barges and 24 floating cranes and anchoring them, project engineer Marianne Brinson told the Tampa Bay Times. Crews also laid down cranes on land on their sides.

Emergency managers in New England and New York were already monitoring the path of the storm for the possibility of remnants striking their states. States, including New York and Vermont, have been hit by heavy rain and thunderstorms in recent weeks and are still coping with flooding and saturated ground.

Vermont, in particular, suffered two separate flooding events in July, and another could bring heavy damage to communities still repairing from earlier floods. The July storms came on the heels of “last Summer’s flood, destroying infrastructure, homes, and property,” Gov. Phil Scott said Saturday.

For some, the name Debby summons bad memories of a 2012 tropical storm of the same name that caused $250 million in losses and eight deaths, including seven in the Sunshine State. That storm dumped torrential rains, including an astronomical 29 inches (730 mm) south of Tallahassee.

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Material provided by The Associated Press contributed to this report.