'Life-threatening' Tropical Storm Debby headed for Florida's Gulf Coast via Reuters
Written by Rich McKay
(Reuters) – Tropical Storm Debby is expected to gather strength and become a hurricane on Sunday night, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, rather than on Monday, as it had predicted a few hours earlier.
Forecasters expect a large number of Atlantic hurricanes in the 2024 season, which began on June 1, with four to seven identified as major, among the 25 named storms. That surpasses the record-breaking 2005 season that spawned hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
In preparation for Debby, Governor Ron DeSantis called in 3,000 National Guardsmen and placed most of Florida's cities and counties under emergency orders, with evacuations ordered in parts of the Gulf Coast counties of Pasco Hernando and Citrus.
“It is becoming clear that Debby will become a hurricane before it makes landfall,” said Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, urging people to heed evacuation orders.
The agency updated its forecast at 2 a.m. EDT (6 a.m. GMT) for Debby, which had become a tropical storm by late Saturday after spending days as a broad, sluggish system in the Atlantic.
Debby was crawling at 14 mph (23 kph) along the Gulf Coast about 230 miles (370 km) southwest of Tampa, packing winds expected to gust to 70 mph (113 kph) or more, from -45 mph (72 kph), as it gains hurricane strength.
It moved off the coast of northern Cuba on Saturday evening, where it was about 160 kilometers west-west of Key West in Florida, the NHC added.
“This is a life-threatening condition,” the NHC said in a report. “There were a lot of hazards, not just the wind,” Rhome added.
He warned of storm surges of up to 7 ft (2 m.) near Florida's Big Bend area, where Debby is expected to hit the southeastern Panhandle of the peninsula region.
“Now, I'm six feet tall,” Rhome said. “So that's off the top of my head.” As much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain could be expected, rising to 38 centimeters in some areas, and more if the storm weakens or makes landfall, he added.
Debby is expected to lose some strength after landfall but will bring heavy rain as it moves across central Florida and out onto the Atlantic coast, before crawling to Savannah, Georgia, and on to Charleston, South Carolina, early in the week.
Forecast sea level rise in Bonita Beach north of Tampa Bay could send waves further inland than normal structures, damaging and endangering anyone in their path.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for southern Florida, reaching as far north as the Fort Myers area hit by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Debby is expected to do the same as Hurricane Ian, which killed 103 people in Florida and caused billions of dollars in damage as it hit the Gulf Coast.
Only one hurricane, Beryl, has formed in the Atlantic this year. The first Category 5 hurricane on record, it devastated the Caribbean and Yucatan peninsula of Mexico before making landfall on the Gulf Coast of Texas as a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of up to 95 mph (153 kph).
