Miami: At least four people were killed as Tropical Storm Debbie drenched Florida on Monday, threatening the southeastern US states with heavy rains and devastating floods.
A 13-year-old boy was killed when a tree blew over a mobile home in Levy County, the sheriff's office there said, after Debbie made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane.
A truck driver was killed when an 18-wheeler plunged into a canal in Hillsborough County, while a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy were killed in a car crash in Dixie County, officials said.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the storm is expected to move into Georgia overnight, before moving offshore and approaching the South Carolina coast on Thursday.
“This is a level four risk out of four for extreme rainfall,” NHC director Michael Brennan told reporters.
“This will result in a prolonged extreme rainfall event with the potential for catastrophic flooding in coastal portions of Georgia, South Carolina, extending into North Carolina,” he added.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says about 250,000 residents in his state are without power.
“Please, be very careful when you go out,” he said, adding that Debbie's winds were not as damaging as previous storms that have hit Florida.
President Joe Biden on Sunday approved an emergency declaration for Florida, allowing federal aid to be expedited.
DeSantis has activated the state's National Guard, with more than 3,000 service members mobilized to help with the storm response.
By midday, the NHC said the storm was registering maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 km/h) in Florida.
Tornado warnings – in effect for parts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina – indicate life-threatening inundation from rising waters.
Debbie was expected to bring “potentially historic rainfall” of up to 30 inches as it moved north, the NHC said.
But it said Debbie was weakening after making landfall earlier as a category one hurricane of 80 mph (130 kph) – the lowest on a scale of five.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for eight other counties in Citrus County, Florida, under a voluntary evacuation order, local media reported.
Police in the city of Sarasota said about 500 residents were evacuated from their flooded homes.
The governors of Georgia and South Carolina declared states of emergency ahead of the storm's arrival.
Meanwhile, the US Border Patrol announced that Debbie had washed up 25 packages of cocaine on the shores of the Florida Keys, where they were seized.
The intended shipment had a street value of more than $1 million, Acting Chief Patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II said in the X.
In July, powerful Hurricane Beryl killed at least 18 people as it tore through the Caribbean before battering the southern US states of Texas and Louisiana.
Scientists say climate change plays a role in the increased intensity of storms like Beryl because a warmer ocean has more energy to feed them.
