At least 4 dead as Tropical Storm Debby batters southeastern US
Tropical Storm Debby lashed Florida with torrential rains and strong winds, contributing to at least four deaths as it veered ominously toward low-lying regions of the East Coast and threatened to flood some of the most historic cities in the southern United States.
The record rainfall was expected to cause flash flooding, with up to 30 inches of water expected in some areas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Flooding was a possibility for the historic cities of Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina. Up to 18 inches was forecast for central and northern Florida.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that just because the storm is moving toward Georgia doesn’t mean the state won’t continue to see threats as waterways north of the state line fill and flow south.
“It’s a very saturated and wet storm,” he said during an afternoon briefing at the state’s emergency operations center. “When it peaks and the water that’s going to come down from Georgia, that’s something we’re going to be on alert for not just for today, but for the next week.”
Debby made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane. It has since weakened to a tropical storm and is moving slowly, covering roads with water and contributing to at least four deaths.
Children among the dead
A truck driver died on Interstate 75 in the Tampa, Florida, area after losing control of his tractor-trailer, which rolled over a concrete wall and was left hanging over the edge before the cab fell into the water. Sheriff’s divers located the driver, a 64-year-old man from Mississippi, in the cab 40 feet below the surface, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
A 13-year-old boy died Monday morning after a tree fell on a mobile home southwest of Gainesville, Florida, according to the Levy County Sheriff’s Office.
And in Dixie County, east of where the storm made landfall, a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy were killed in a car crash on wet roads Sunday night. The Florida Highway Patrol said a 14-year-old boy who was a passenger was hospitalized with serious injuries.
Power outages, flight delays
More than 300,000 customers remained without power in Florida and Georgia on Monday afternoon, down from a peak of more than 350,000, according to PowerOutage.us and Georgia Electric Membership Corp.
DeSantis said about 17,000 power linemen were working to restore electricity and warned residents in affected areas to stay off the roads until conditions were safe.
Airports were also affected. More than 1,600 flights were canceled across the United States, many of them to or from Florida airports, according to FlightAware.com. One in five flights scheduled to depart from Orlando International Airport was canceled Monday. Nearly 30 percent of flights scheduled to depart from Tampa International Airport were canceled.
Twice as much rain as expected
Sarasota, Florida, a coastal city popular with tourists, was one of the hardest hit by flooding.
“We’ve basically had double the amount of rain that was forecast,” Sarasota County Fire Chief David Rathbun said in an update on social media.
The storm made landfall near Steinhatchee, a small community in northern Florida of fewer than 1,000 residents.
Taylor County, where Steinhatchee is located, closed several roads because of flooding, Sheriff Wayne Padgett said. Trees and power lines were also down on some roads.
Padgett advised anyone who had evacuated low-lying or coastal areas to wait before returning home because the tide had not risen and it was unclear how deep floodwaters might later get.
US President Joe Biden was briefed on Debby’s progress while at her home in Wilmington, Delaware, the White House said.
Vice President Kamala Harris has postponed a scheduled trip to Georgia amid the effects of Tropical Storm Debby. Harris’ presidential campaign said her planned stop in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday was postponed due to the storm.
Local leaders in Savannah said flooding could occur in areas that don’t normally get high water if Debby tanks over the city.
“This type of rain coming our way, with the intensity that we’re being told is coming, is going to take a lot of people by surprise,” Chatham County Chairman Chester Ellis said.
‘Historic and potentially unprecedented’
In South Carolina, Charleston County interim emergency director Ben Webster called Debby a “historic and potentially unprecedented event” three times in a 90-second briefing Monday morning.
The city of Charleston has an emergency plan that includes sandbagging for residents, opening parking lots so residents can park their cars above flood waters and an online mapping system showing which roads are closed due to flooding.
North and South Carolina have had to deal with three catastrophic floods caused by tropical systems in the past nine years, all of them causing more than US$1 billion in damage.
In 2015, moisture-fueled rains as Hurricane Joaquin passed offshore caused massive flooding.
In 2016, flooding from Hurricane Matthew caused 24 deaths in both states and rivers reached record levels. Those records were broken in 2018 by Hurricane Florence, which set rainfall records in both Carolinas, flooded many of the same places and was responsible for 42 deaths in North Carolina and nine in South Carolina.
In Savannah, Jim Froncak piled sandbags into his pickup truck Monday as rain fell. He said a recent thunderstorm caused so much flooding that he and a friend were able to kayak down the street.
