At least four people are dead and nearly 300,000 have been left without power following Hurricane Debby’s Monday morning landfall on the Big Bend coast of Florida, according to local reports.
Debby, which was been downgraded back to a tropical storm after more than three hours of wreaking havoc across northern Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, has shown maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) stated.
The high-speed winds and rain knocked down power lines, caused flooding, and uprooted trees — killing a 13-year-old boy in Levy County.
Deputies with the Levy County Sheriff’s Office said they responded to a report of a tree falling on a mobile home in Fanning Springs around 8:00 a.m., finding the teen “crushed inside the home.”
No other injuries were reported, the statement noted.
“Sheriff [Bobby] McCallum has responded to the scene personally, and is with the family,” the sheriff’s office said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with this family as they deal with this tragedy. We encourage everyone to use extreme caution as they begin to assess and clean up the damage.”
“Downed power lines and falling trees are among the many hazards. One life is too many. Please be safe,” police added.
A 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy were killed in a single-vehicle crash in Dixie County on Sunday night just before Debby touched down, USA Today reported.
Witnesses reportedly told the Florida Highway Patrol that the victims’ vehicle lost control “due to inclement weather and wet roadway.”
A 14-year-old boy was also transported from the scene to the hospital with “serious injuries,” according to UPI.
Another driver was killed early on Monday when the cab of his tractor-trailer fell into the rising Tampa Bypass Canal after hitting a barrier while heading southbound on I-75, the outlet reported.
According to the tracker PowerOutage.us, a whopping 243,359 Florida households are without power, with nearly all residents of Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, and Suwannee counties in the dark.
An additional 25,726 customers have been affected in southern Georgia as well.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the NHC said.
The forecasters added that Debby is projected to move across northern Florida before pouring down “potentially historic heavy rainfall” up the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.
“There went my fence,” wrote one Florida woman on X, alongside videos of the gusts blowing across her yard just before 10:00 a.m.:
Another woman in St. Petersburg posted shocking comparisons from before and after the flooding, showing a tiny creek transform into a river:
Fadia Mayté Patterson with Spectrum Bay News 9 shared videos of fish washed up on land and roadways submerged in floodwater in the neighborhood of Dana Shores, which is near Tampa Bay International Airport:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) promised his constituents that linemen will be working “around the clock”:
“We appreciate all the utility linemen, from Florida and out-of-state, who are staged and ready to respond to Tropical Storm Debby. They will be working around the clock to restore your power quickly and safely as soon as weather conditions allow,” DeSantis wrote in a Sunday evening X post.
“If your power goes out, stay safe by running your portable generator outside at least 20 feet away from your home on a flat, dry surface,” he added.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.