Hurricane Debby, the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and the second named hurricane, has become a Category 1 storm, according to the National Hurricane Centre in the US.
The storm, located about 160km west north-west of Tampa, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 120km/hour, is expected to make landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Monday morning local time (late Monday night AEST).
“Debby is then expected to move slowly across northern Florida and southern Georgia Monday and Tuesday, and be near the Georgia coast by Tuesday night,” the hurricane centre said in its 11pm advisory.
DAY 9 WRAP: All the action from a medal-packed night in Paris
Debby began dumping rain on parts of the state earlier on Sunday as a tropical storm and is expected to unload potentially historic amounts of rainfall over the south eastern United States.
Authorities in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are urging residents to prepare for heavy rain and possible flooding as the storm makes its way through the Gulf.
The cities of Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, could both be drenched with a month’s worth of rain in a single day — and perhaps even an entire summer’s worth of rain over the course of the storm.
Debby will likely strengthen further before it reaches the coast, the hurricane centre warned.
Hurricane conditions are expected to arrive by Monday morning, with the outer bands of the storm system making their way on shore during the day on Sunday.
The storm is forecast to reach the coast of the Big Bend around midday Monday, at which point Debby is expected to then crawl across northern Florida and southern Georgia throughout the day and into Tuesday, the hurricane centre said.
The main threat will be flooding, both from storm surges up to three metres and heavy rainfall.
Freshwater flooding, which is caused by rainfall, has become the deadliest aspect of tropical systems in the last decade, according to research conducted by the hurricane centre — a threat made more dangerous as the world warms from fossil fuel pollution.
The strengthening storm tracking up the Florida Peninsula’s western coast prompted county and state officials to issue a string of voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders as the hurricane centre posted hurricane watches and warnings across several parts of the state, including near Tampa and the Big Bend region.
Tropical storm and storm surge watches and warnings have also been issued for parts of Florida, coastal Georgia and parts of South Carolina.
READ MORE: ‘Worst season ever’: How things got ugly on Greece’s ‘Instagram island’
The hurricane centre upgraded a tropical storm watch to a warning for the area west of Indian Pass to Mexico Beach, Florida, in its 5pm ET update, and a tropical storm warning was also issued for the eastern coasts of Florida and Georgia from Ponte Vedra Beach to the Savannah River.
A tornado watch has also been issued for much of the Florida Peninsula and parts of southern Georgia until Monday morning, covering more than 13 million people, including the cities of Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster have declared states of emergency for their states in advance of the storm’s arrival. DeSantis on Sunday said in a news conference that he’d activated the Florida National Guard so it would be poised to assist with humanitarian needs as well as search and rescue.
READ MORE: The Sydney mansions that have been sitting empty for years
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1820070153792397564?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
DeSantis called on residents to finish their preparations and to brace for power outages, “particularly in parts of the state like here in Tallahassee.”
“There’s going to be a lot of trees that are going to fall down. You’re going to have debris. You are going to have power interruption,” the governor said, “so just prepare for that.”
More than 60,000 customers were already without power in Florida and more than 14,000 had lost electricity in Georgia by Sunday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.
DeSantis also urged Florida residents to avoid floodwaters ahead of the storm’s potentially significant flooding impacts, particularly in North Central Florida.
OLYMPIC SCHEDULE: Your day-to-day guide to all the action in Paris, in AEST times
https://twitter.com/henrymcmaster/status/1820152268542374113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“Please do not drive your vehicles through flooded streets. The number one way we have fatalities as a result of floods is people trying to drive through the floodwater,” he said.
The docks of Indian Mound Park in Sarasota County, south of Tampa, were underwater by 2pm ET Sunday, the county government posted on X.
A little farther south, near Fort Myers, waters from the Gulf began spilling over onto coastal roadways and prompted some road closures after Debby’s outer bands dumped rain along the shoreline on Sunday afternoon, Charlotte County emergency management officials said.
President Joe Biden on Sunday approved a disaster declaration for Florida, the White House announced, authorising federal resources to respond to any disaster relief efforts.
Storm expected to intensify over Gulf
The slower Debby moves and the longer it sits over warm waters, the more likely the storm is to intensify.
Studies have shown tropical systems are slowing down over time, making them more likely to produce greater rainfall totals over a given area.
Oceans are also getting warmer and supercharging storms, pumping them full of moisture.
OLYMPIC HUB: You can find all the latest Paris 2024 stories from Wide World Of Sport here
A 2022 study published in the journal Nature Communications found climate change increased hourly rainfall rates in tropical storms by five to 10 per cent and in hurricanes by eight to 11 per cent.
“Conditions are favourable for strengthening over the Gulf of Mexico with warm sea surface temperatures and light shear. Intensification is likely to be slow during the first 12–24 hours, then proceed at a faster rate after the cyclone develops an organised inner core,” the National Hurricane Center said of Debby.
By early Monday, Debby is expected to move into the Apalachee Bay area of Florida as it moves northward over the Gulf, according to the Weather Prediction Center.
The Apalachee Bay area, which includes parts of Taylor, Jefferson, Wakulla, and Franklin counties, can expect to get drenched with heavy rain from Debby on Sunday, increasing the possibility of flash flooding in several spots, the hurricane centre said.
In the meantime, county officials have urged residents in communities along Florida’s Gulf Coast to evacuate ahead of the storm.
Mandatory evacuation orders are in effect for parts of Franklin, Citrus and Levy counties, with voluntary orders issued in Hernando, Taylor and Pasco counties.
“I am worried about the aftermath and seeing how much damage we get (and) how we are going to fix it,” Sue Colson, the mayor of Cedar Key in Levy County, told CNN on Sunday.
The city sits on the island of Way Key in the Gulf of Mexico, about four miles off the coast.
MEDAL TALLY: Olympic medal table and full results from every event
She cited high amounts of anticipated rain as well as the threat of storm surge.
“That is always concerning when you are a low-lying island in the middle of the Gulf,” she said.
On Saturday, Florida Highway Patrol knocked on doors to tell residents to consider leaving, Colson said.
Residents were continuing to finish their preparations on Sunday morning.
“I think everybody needs to make wise decisions for themselves and not endanger others by endangering yourself,” she said. “If you’re endangering yourself, you are endangering others, because then they have to rescue you.”
Heavy rain could linger for days
As a slow-moving Debby churns along the Georgia-Carolina coastline heading into the new week, it could lead to seemingly endless amounts of rain for days, with totals potentially reaching over 60cm
The heaviest rain amounts could even top 76cm or more, depending on how long Debby meanders, with some forecast models showing the storm could linger through at least Thursday.
“This rainfall will likely result in areas of considerable flash and urban flooding, with significant river flooding expected,” the National Hurricane Centre said.
Such exceptional rainfall would challenge state records for rain from a tropical cyclone:
OLYMPIC RESULTS: Every time, every distance, every medal from Paris
In Georgia, the record is 70cm from 1994’s Alberto, while South Carolina’s record is 60cm from Florence in 2018.
A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture and can dump heavier rain.
Warmer oceans can fuel stronger hurricanes, packing a punch with higher storm surge thanks to sea-level rise.
With an uptick in the intensity forecast comes an increase in forecasted storm surge, which occurs when ocean water is pushed inland by the onshore winds of a hurricane.
Storm surge flooding above ground could rise to 1.8m to 3m feet along Florida’s Big Bend, and coastal Georgia and South Carolina could see surges reach 60cm to 1.2m
Tampa Bay is expecting 60cm to 1.20m feet of storm surge.
Marco Island and other areas of southwest Florida will see 30cm to 90cm feet of storm surge.
Warmer air and ocean temperatures fuelled by human-induced climate change can lead to wetter tropical systems.
The North Florida region nestled between the Panhandle and the rest of the state’s peninsula took a devastating hit last August from Category 3 Hurricane Idalia, and now faces a new threat from Debby.
links to content on ABC
9News
