Debby Strengthens to Category 1 Hurricane, Expected to Hit Florida

Tropical Storm Debby strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Monday, U.S. forecasters said Sunday night.

The storm’s maximum winds increased to 75 mph at 11 p.m. ET, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The hurricane was about 65 miles west of Cedar Key, Fla., and about 100 miles west of Tampa, and was moving north at about 12 miles per hour, the center said.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 61 counties expected to be affected by the storm. In a statement, his office said 3,000 members of the National Guard were mobilized to help respond to the storm, sandbags were being distributed and the Florida emergency operations center was activated.

Debby is expected to continue strengthening before making landfall in Big Bend on Monday, weakening after moving inland through northern Florida and southern Georgia, the hurricane center said.

The hurricane is expected to bring a 2- to 10-foot storm surge in certain areas and heavy rain through Friday morning.

Parts of central and northern Florida and southeastern North Carolina could receive 6 to 12 inches of rain, with up to 7 inches possible. And parts of southeast Georgia and South Carolina could receive 10 to 20 inches of rain, with up to 30 inches in some areas, the hurricane center said.

Tropical storm conditions are expected to continue along portions of Florida’s Gulf Coast through Sunday night, in addition to hurricane conditions along the coast from the Suwannee River to Yankeetown.

Officials in and around the coastal Carolinas were bracing for the storm to bring unprecedented rain to parts of the region, with officials in the Charleston, South Carolina, area saying up to 30 inches could fall starting Monday.

Evacuation orders for at least half a dozen Florida counties have been in force or planned for Monday as the storm approached.

High water rescues were already taking place in Pinellas County, Florida, when thunderstorms and heavy rain caused flooding, the county’s emergency management agency said.

Florida Highway Patrol officers on Sunday night closed the Skyway Bridge in St. Petersberg amid high winds, according to a release. The University of South Florida in St. Petersberg and the University of Florida in Gainesville, in the northern half of the state, said they would be closed Monday.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office in the state’s Big Bend region issued a statement urging residents to “exercise extreme caution” if they must travel on area roads when up to six inches of rain were expected in a short space of time. .

DeSantis compared Debby’s path to that of Hurricane Idalia, the Category 4 storm that caused significant damage in North Florida last year.

Debby won’t have winds as strong as Idalia’s, but it will bring much more moisture, DeSantis said Sunday afternoon.

At least three deaths have been attributed to the 2023 storm, which left hundreds of thousands of customers without power, forced residents to swim out of windows as water poured in and left communities digging through the rubble.