Debby downgraded to tropical storm after landfall along Florida coast: Live updates

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. − Hurricane Debby, now a tropical storm, roared ashore Monday along the Big Bend coast of Florida, flooding streets and causing widespread power outages as the storm continued toward Georgia and South Carolina, where it's expected to cause catastrophic flooding this week.

Debby, the fourth named storm of what is expected to be a historic hurricane season, made landfall Monday at 7 a.m. near the coastal town of Steinhatchee as a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Steinhatchee, home to some 500 people, is just 10 miles from where Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year.

After more than three hours moving across northern Florida, Debby was downgraded to a tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph, the hurricane center said in its 11 a.m. update.

State officials reported widespread flooding and inundating storm surge as Debby moved inland. The storm's winds uprooted trees and toppled utility poles, knocking out power to more than 250,000 homes and businesses throughout northern Florida. Meanwhile, forecasters said Debby's powerful winds could spawn tornadoes while storm surge could reach 10 feet in some areas.

"This is a life-threatening situation," the hurricane center warned.

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Debby is projected to move slowly across northern Florida before unleashing "potentially historic heavy rainfall" across the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.

Widespread rainfall totals of 10-20 inches are expected from northern Florida to southeastern North Carolina, while parts of northern Georgia and South Carolina, including Charleston, could experience upwards of 30 inches of rain through this weekend, Michael Brennan, the director of the National Hurricane Center, said in a YouTube live steam.

President Joe Biden on Sunday declared an emergency across Florida, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also said that the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard were activated to support humanitarian assistance and search and rescue missions. 

Developments:

∎ The National Hurricane Center has just recorded a 98 mph gust near Horseshoe Beach, according to the Florida Severe Weather Network, a collection of state-run weather stations.

∎ The National Water Prediction Service projected major flooding in three locations on the Santa Fe River and a location on the Suwannee River in North Florida.

∎ Debby wreaked havoc on travel. Nearly 1,200 flights had been canceled and close to 850 were delayed on Monday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. The Federal Aviation Administration said all flights at Orlando International Airport have been grounded while airports in Tallahassee and Gainesville were closed.

Fallen tree kills 13-year-old amid Hurricane Debby

The Levy County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Monday that a 13-year-old boy was killed as Hurricane Debby made landfall along the Florida coast on Monday morning.

Deputies responded to a report of a tree that had fallen onto a mobile home around 8 a.m. in Fanning Springs, about 35 miles east from where the hurricane came ashore. The boy who died was "crushed inside the home," the sheriff's office said. 

“Our thoughts and prayers are with this family as they deal with this tragedy,” the sheriff’s office said, urging people to be careful as they begin to assess the storm damage. “Downed power lines and falling trees are among the many hazards. One life is too many. Please be safe.”

– Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY

Where is Debby?

After making landfall, Debby crawled north across northern Florida Monday morning, drenching the the state's interior as the coast experienced several feet of storm surge.

The storm around 7 a.m. made landfall near Steinhatchee, about 70 miles west of Gainesville. As of 11 a.m., Debby was recorded 35 miles west of Lake City, moving north-northeast at 8 mph, according to the hurricane center. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, down from 80 mph when it came ashore.

Debby is expected to decrease in forward speed as it turns toward the northeast and east on Monday and through Tuesday, the hurricane center said. The storm is expected to move across northern Florida and southern Georgia Monday and Tuesday, and be near the Georgia coast by Tuesday night.

Town still recovering from Idalia gets walloped by Hurricane Debby

Donna Luce lost power at 6 a.m. Monday and said rain came down for hours as Hurricane Debby approached and eventually made landfall along Florida's Big Bend coast. Her home’s rain gauge showed 7 inches of rain fell on Sunday alone, she said.

“It is still raining pretty hard and we expect to get that most of the day, kind of like it’s sitting right here on top of us,” Luce told USA TODAY on Monday morning.

Many residents in Mayo, a small town that sits about 30 miles north from where Debby came ashore, have spent the past year recovering from Hurricane Idalia, said Luce, 65.

“Most people had just gotten their roofs repaired, and had gotten back up on their feet,” she said, adding that several of her neighbors still had tarps on their roofs this summer. “Now it’s hitting us again one year later and we are a little discouraged."

– Claire Thornton, USA TODAY

Flooding from Hurricane Debby could last 5-10 days

Gov. Ron DeSantis at a news conference Monday morning said Hurricane Debby brought widespread flooding across northern Florida as it made landfall and began moving inland.

“We have seen significant storm surge and we have seen inundation,” he said, adding that the storm's impacts are expected to last several days.

Kevin Guthrie, the executive director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said some parts of southwest Florida received up to a foot of rain as Debby approached the Big Bend region. He added that flooding in northern Florida will be widespread as up to 20 inches could fall over the next few days.

Guthrie cautioned people to stay indoors as flash floods break out inland and storm surge continues to inundate coastal communities.

The flood threat from Hurricane Debby, Guthrie said, "is probably going to be here for the next five to seven days, maybe as long as 10 days depending on how much rainfall we get.”

Woman, boy killed in crash as Hurricane Debby approached Florida coast

A woman and a boy died in a single-vehicle crash in Dixie County on Sunday night, the eve of Hurricane Debby’s landfall, according to a law enforcement report.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrived at the scene of the crash around 9:30 p.m. A 38-year-old woman and 12-year-old boy were pronounced dead, while a 14-year-old boy was seriously injured and rushed to a hospital for treatment.

Witnesses told the Florida Highway Patrol that the car lost control “due to inclement weather and wet roadway.”

“After losing control, the vehicle struck the guardrail in the center median, then redirected, overturning, leaving the roadway to the right,” the Florida Highway Patrol said. The crash is under investigation.

Nearly 300k without power after Debby makes landfall

More than 298,000 homes and businesses in North Florida were without power Monday as Hurricane Debby made landfall along the Big Bend coast.

The outages were most abundant from Wakulla to Levy County, according to Poweroutage.us. In Taylor County, where Hurricane Debby made landfall at 7 a.m., more than 97% of utility customers were without power. In several surrounding counties, well over 80% of all utility customers were in the dark.

At a news conference Monday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis said there are 17,000 linemen across the state poised to begin restoring power once the storm passes.

Hurricane Debby came ashore near where Idalia made landfall

Hurricane Debby made landfall within miles of where Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year.

Idalia, a Category 3 storm, made landfall on Aug. 30 near Keaton Beach in Taylor County along Florida's Big Bend Coast. The storm flattened homes and left coastal towns under several feet of water. Dekle Beach in Taylor County and Horseshoe Beach in Dixie County, in particular, experienced a devastating storm surge, with water 7 to 12 feet above normally dry ground.

Now, less than a year later, Hurricane Debby came ashore near Steinhatchee, about 10 miles southeast of Keaton Beach. While it’s a less powerful storm, Debby was capable of unleashing life-threatening storm surge across much of the same region that was walloped by Idalia.

Hurricane Debby causes deja vu for Big Bend resident

Repairs on Spyridon Aibejeris’ Keaton Beach house were only just completed. 

“Like, two weeks ago,” he said, before a powerful gust of wind and rain interrupted his interview with a USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida reporter. 

He and his family rode out Hurricane Idalia, a Category 3 storm that made landfall along the Big Bend coast last August, in the same Perry hotel he stood in front of early Monday morning, waiting for yet another hurricane to bear down on Florida – and his house. 

“Man, I’ve done this so many times. You just go back and see what you’ve got to do,” said Aibejeris, who owns a campground near his house that was also damaged by Idalia.

“I hope I don’t have to go back to that again,” he added. 

What makes Debby such a treacherous storm?

Debby is a large and slow-moving storm, making the system particularly dangerous as record amounts of rain inundate many areas, especially along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina in the coming days.

The hurricane center on Sunday said if peak storm surge occurs at the time of high tide, Debby could push a wall of water 6-10 feet above ground level along the coast of Florida.

The storm’s center was forecast to move near Savannah on Tuesday night and drag along the South Carolina Coast on Thursday night. "Multiple days of very, very heavy rainfall" are possible, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said.

The National Weather Service estimates rainfall totals could reach up to 30 inches or more in isolated locations along the coast through Friday. The weather service office in Charleston, South Carolina, warned of "potentially historic rainfall."

What will other impacts be from Debby?

A few tornadoes are possible through Monday morning, mainly over western and northern Florida and southern Georgia, the hurricane center said.

Swells generated by Debby are expected to affect much of the Gulf Coast of Florida through Monday, reach 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," said Richard Pasch, a senior hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center.

Debby shows there's more to a storm than wind scale

As Debby strengthens in the Gulf and draws closer to Florida, hurricane experts and scientists say it’s a classic example of how the wind scale categories used to describe hurricanes can fall short of telling the whole story.

"This is another example of a storm where the primary impacts are going to be from water, rather than wind," said James Franklin, a retired branch chief of the hurricane specialist unit at the National Hurricane Center.

Jennifer Collins, a professor in the Geosciences School at the University of South Florida, has studied how to better communicate all of a storm’s threats. Looking at the forecasts for up to 30 inches of rain in isolated locations between Savannah and Charleston, Collins told USA TODAY she’s very concerned about the likelihood of “catastrophic flooding" and hopes people will look at all of the hurricane center's forecast products. Read more here.

Debby tracker

Spaghetti models

Illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses only the top four or five highest performing models to help make its forecasts.

When is the Atlantic hurricane season the most active?

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.

The peak of the season is Sept. 10, and the most activity usually happens between mid-August and mid-October, according to the hurricane center.

After Hurricane Beryl's deadly rampage in July, forecasters from Colorado State University raised their already record hurricane forecast. They now expect an additional hurricane (a total of 12 for the season) and two more named storms (25 for the season).