Florida braces for Debbie — expected to land in North Florida as a hurricane on Monday

Gov. Ron DeSantis warned residents Sunday to complete preparations for the arrival of Tropical Storm Debbie, which has been forecast to hit the Big Bend area Monday morning with hurricane-force winds.

“We are gonna face impacts in this state,” he said during a 7:30 a.m. briefing from the Florida Emergency Operations Center on Tallahassee’s south side.

“You still have time to finalize your preparations, so I would urge all Floridians to do so. I would urge all Floridians to be cognizant of the fact that we are going to have a hurricane hit the state — probably a Category One but it could be a little bit more powerful than that.

“But we are absolutely gonna see a lot of rainfall. We are gonna see a lot of saturation. We are gonna see flooding events. Like, that is going to happen. There’s also going to be power outages. That will happen. And we’ve mobilized a lot of resources to get the power back on and help local communities do that,” the governor said.

Category One storms pack sustained winds of between 74 and 95 miles per hour. That means, according to the National Hurricane Center: “Well-constructed frame homes could have damage to roof, shingles, vinyl siding and gutters. Large branches of trees will snap and shallowly rooted trees may be toppled. Extensive damage to power lines and poles likely will result in power outages that could last a few to several days.”

Category Two means winds between 96 and 110 miles per hour.

DeSantis has declared a state of emergency in 61 counties.

Forecast

As of 8 a.m. Sunday, Debbie was centered 205 miles south-southwest of Cedar Key and moving toward the north-northwest at 13 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.

A hurricane warning was in effect along the coast from the Suwannee River to the Ochlockonee River and a storm surge warning from the Pasco/Hernando county line northward to Indian Pass in Gulf County. Hurricane and storm surge watches were also in place in nearby areas.

“While Debby moves across the very warm waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and remains in a relatively low wind shear environment, the storm will have an opportunity to strengthen rapidly before reaching the coast,” the NHC said.

“After Debby makes landfall in Florida, the system is expected to slow down and turn northeastward across northern Florida and southeastern Georgia on Monday and Tuesday as the steering currents weaken significantly,” the forecast continued.

Forecasters expect up to 12 to 18 inches of rain in North Florida.

Guthrie said that as many as 17,000 electric line workers have been positioned to restore power expected to be lost during the storm, especially in cities like Tallahassee with extensive tree canopies.

The state has already been in contact with power providers in the region, including Tallahassee’s municipal utility.

“We have talked to every single one of those in the Big Bend area, representatives of those individual companies. They are ready to go. They are in place,” Guthrie said.

Water barriers

Sections of Tallahassee suffered extended power outages after being hit by tornadoes in May. Hurricane Idalia made landfall as a Category Three storm to the east of the capital city on Aug. 30, 2023. Category Five Hurricane Michael devastated broad swaths of the Panhandle on Oct. 10, 2018. Hurricane Ian, Category Four, did the same in Southwest Florida on Sept. 28, 2022, and caused extensive flooding through peninsular Florida.

Ahead of Debbie, the state is positioning water barriers around critical infrastructure, including power substations. These barriers are water-inflatable tubes that can be built up to heights of eight feet around facilities in need of protection against flooding.

With the ground in the area already saturated by heavy rainfall, flooding is guaranteed, officials said.

“The further west that track moves, likely the more room it’s gonna have to intensify. So, it’s not out of the question that you could end up with a Category Two storm. It’s possible — it may not be the most likely, but it’s certainly possible, so you should just prepare for that,” DeSantis said.

“Once it does make landfall, it is going to be meandering for quite a bit over the next couple days and it’s going just to drop a lot of water on the state, and that’s gonna have impacts, there are gonna be hazards as a result of that,” the governor continued.

The Florida National Guard has deployed as many as 3,000 servicemembers and the Florida State Guard 70 members. Also on hand are watercraft to assist in rescues and other forms of response, the governor’s office said.

Officials warned motorists not to attempt to drive through flooded roadways.

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