Hurricane Debby slammed into the Big Bend coast of Florida as a Category 1 storm on Monday, causing flooding as it makes its way toward the East Coast.
The storm hit Florida’s Gulf Coast near the small community of Steinhatchee around 7 a.m. Monday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Debby is the fourth named storm of what is predicted to be an above-average hurricane season, experts told FreightWaves.
Debby is expected to slowly make its way from Florida to Delaware, bringing record-setting rain to some states in its path. The Hurricane Center is predicting that the storm will bring major flooding to the Southeast over the next few days. The storm is forecast to hit the Georgia coast by Tuesday night.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the center said in an update Monday morning.
Debby could dump up to 18 inches of rain on parts of Florida and North Carolina through Saturday, causing flash flooding, forecasters predict.
Parts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina could see up to 30 inches of rain.
“This potentially historic rainfall will likely result in areas of catastrophic flooding,” forecasters said.
Port Tampa Bay, which handles 33 million tons of cargo annually and is Florida’s largest port, closed its waterways on Saturday in anticipation of the storm. The waterways remained closed Monday. The port’s non-vessel operations were open.
Georgia ports are closing at 3 p.m. Monday, said spokesman Tom Boyd.
The Port of Fernandina, a small port on Florida’s Atlantic Coast that handles steel, aluminum, machinery, paper and forest products, and consumer goods, is open but on “X-ray status,” a readiness condition ahead of possible gale force winds, said office manager Rossana Hebron.
Vessels of more than 500 gross tons and oceangoing barges should make preparations to leave the port or have permission from the Coast Guard captain of the port to remain in port, she said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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