Tropical Storm Debby moves through Gulf toward Florida with hurricane warnings
Published:Sunday | August 4, 2024 | 11:06 AM
MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby strengthened rapidly Sunday and was expected to become a hurricane as it moved through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, bringing with it the threat of devastating floods to the southeast Atlantic coast later in the week.
The storm was likely to become a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall Monday in the Big Bend region of Florida, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
From there, the storm is expected to move eastward over northern Florida and then stall over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, bringing the potential for a “historic rainfall event and potentially catastrophic flooding” that could begin early Tuesday and last through Friday, according to Dwight Koehn, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Charleston, South Carolina.
The flooding impacts could be especially severe in low-lying areas near the coast, including Savannah, Georgia; Hilton Head, South Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina, he said.
The hurricane center said in an update posted at 11 a.m. Sunday that Debby was located about 130 miles (210 kilometres) west-southwest of Tampa, Florida, and about 160 miles (260 kilometres) south-southwest of Cedar Key, Florida. The storm was moving north-northwest at 13 mph (21 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (105 kph), up from 50 mph (80) just a few hours ago.
“I'd urge all Floridians to be cognisant 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,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a Sunday morning briefing.
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.
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