STEINHATCHEE, Florida — Tropical Storm Debby dropped buckets of rain on northern Florida on Monday and killed at least four people as the downgraded hurricane churned toward Georgia and the Carolinas, threatening a week of torrential downpours and flooding across the region.
The slow-moving storm plowed into Florida’s Gulf Coast around 7 a.m. on Monday morning as a Category 1 hurricane, making landfall near Steinhatchee about 70 miles (115 km) southeast of Tallahassee, the National Hurricane Center said.
When the storm struck in the Big Bend region — where the state’s Panhandle meets its main north-south Peninsula — it was carrying hurricane-force winds of up to 80 mph (130 kph), but speeds ebbed as Debby pushed over land.
At least four people in Florida died in the storm, Governor Ron DeSantis said at a Monday afternoon briefing. Officials said the dead included a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy.
The hurricane center sees Debby crossing Georgia and moving offshore into the Atlantic by Tuesday night, then re-strengthening and making a second landfall, probably in South Carolina near Charleston.
The center forecast “catastrophic flooding,” with some areas along the Atlantic coast receiving 20 to 30 inches of rain by Friday morning. The governors of Georgia and South Carolina have declared states of emergency in anticipation of Debby’s damage.
“This is going to be an event that is going to be probably here for the next five to seven days, maybe as long as 10 days, depending on how much rainfall we get,” said Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie.
By midday Monday, Debby had already dumped eight to 16 inches of rain in some parts of central Florida, according to local weather reports.
The 12-year-old girl who died was hit by a falling tree in Levy County, about 40 miles southwest of Gainesville, DeSantis said. The 13-year-old boy died on Monday morning when a tree fell on a mobile home, also in Levy County, the local Sheriff’s Office said on its website.