Hurricane Debby Hits, Two Teenagers Among Dead

The Category 1, or lowest, hurricane made landfall near the Steinhatchee settlement unit in Tylor County on the Gulf Coast. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported maximum sustained winds of 190 kilometers per hour in Georgia. Current winds are around 110 kilometers per hour. Several hours after hitting the coast, the storm lost strength to a storm tropical.

The weather service is warning that Debby could bring “potentially historic rainfall” of up to 250-500 liters per square meter, causing “catastrophic” flooding. Georgia and South Carolina are particularly at risk. Locally, as much as 750 liters per square meter could fall there by Friday morning local time.

Police said a 13-year-old boy was killed in Fanning Springs, Florida, after a tree fell on the house where he lived.

The driver of an 18-wheeler truck was also killed when it skidded and lost control of its vehicle on the Tampa Beltway, a local television station reported, according to Reuters.

NBC News also reported two people died in a car crash in Dixie County. A 38-year-old woman who was behind the wheel lost control of her vehicle during severe weather and hit a guardrail. She and her 12-year-old passenger were killed. A 14-year-old boy who was also in the car was taken to the hospital.

Storm surges and heavy rainfall flooded many coastal areas. Winds knocked down power lines, knocking out power to more than 300,000 customers in northern Florida and southern Georgia.

Tallahassee International Airport in Florida was closed until noon local time. Other airports in the state, including Tampa International and Orlando International, are open, although several hundred flights have been canceled or delayed.

Debby is moving toward the northeast. After passing Florida, it has entered Georgia. It is then expected to hit South Carolina.

Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have declared a state of emergency. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged residents not to drive through flooded streets. “The people who are dying from flooding are primarily people who are trying to drive through the floodwaters,” he said. “A lot of trees are going to fall. There are going to be power outages, so just be prepared for that,” he said.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called in 2,000 troops to help deal with the aftermath of the hurricane. Savannah's mayor has imposed a citywide curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Tuesday. He has asked residents to stay home for their own safety.

Debby is the fourth such strong hurricane to form in the Atlantic Ocean this year. Meteorologists compare it to Hurricane Haervey, which hit the city of Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico in Texas in 2017. Although the element weakened to a tropical storm as it moved inland, the rainfall was so enormous that Houston received nearly 1,300 liters per square meter. This element was considered one of the “wettest” tropical cyclones in the history of the United States, causing over a hundred deaths and damages of $125 billion, mainly in the Houston metropolitan area – Reuters reminds.