Hurricane Debby hits Florida coast; evacuations ordered
Al Jazeera
Weather agencies warn the storm is expected to dump 6 to 12 inches of rain in Florida and 20 to 30 inches in coastal Georgia and South Carolina.
Hurricane Debby has made landfall as a Category 1 storm in the Big Bend region of Florida in the United States and has begun a slow crawl towards the Atlantic coast.
The hurricane slammed ashore on Monday in the region on the Gulf of Mexico about 7am (11:00 GMT) near Steinhatchee, Florida, about 115km (70 miles) southeast of Tallahassee, delivering winds of up to 130km/h (80mph), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
“We have seen significant storm surge. We have seen inundation. We have seen and we’ll continue to see flooding in various parts of the state of Florida,” Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters, warning of a threat of “significant flooding events” in the coming days.
Debby had already dumped up to a foot (30cm) of rain in some parts of the state’s southwest, Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie said.
The NHC warned that Debby is expected to dump 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30cm) of rain in parts of Florida and as much as 20 to 30 inches (51 to 76cm) in coastal Georgia and South Carolina before the week is over.
