‘Life-threatening’ tropical storm Debby takes aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast
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A satellite image shows a storm - which became tropical storm Debby - moving toward the Gulf of Mexico on Aug 2, 2024.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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FLORIDA - Tropical storm Debby is expected to gather strength and become a hurricane on the night of Aug 4, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said, rather than Aug 5, as it had forecast just hours before.
Forecasters expect a large number of Atlantic hurricanes in the 2024 season, which began on June 1, with four to seven seen as major, among 25 named storms. That exceeds the 2005 record-breaking season that spawned hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Preparing for Debby, Governor Ron DeSantis called up 3,000 National Guard members and placed most of Florida’s cities and counties under emergency orders, while evacuations were ordered in parts of the Gulf Coast counties of Pasco Hernando and Citrus.
“It’s become clearer and clearer that Debby will become a hurricane before it makes landfall,” said Mr Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the NHC, urging people to heed the evacuation orders.
The agency revised its forecast at 2am (2pm, Singapore time) for Debby, which had become a named tropical storm late on Aug 3 after spending days as a broad, sloppy system in the Atlantic.
As at 8am (8pm Singapore time), Debby was crawling at 20kmh into the Gulf Coast about 370km south-west of Tampa, packing maximum sustained winds of nearly 95kmh with higher gusts, as it gains strength to become a hurricane.
The centre of Tropical Storm Debby will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico through Aug 4 and reach the Florida Big Bend coast on the morning of Aug 5, the NHC said in its latest advisory on Aug 4.
Debby is then expected to move slowly across northern Florida and southern Georgia on Aug 5 and 6, the NHC said.
It had left Cuba’s northern coast on the evening of Aug 3, when it was about 160km south-west of Key West in Florida, the NHC added.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the NHC said in a report. There were “a host of hazards, not just the wind,” Mr Rhome added.
He warned of storm surges up to 2m along Florida’s Big Bend area, where Debby is expected to hit just south-east of the peninsular state’s Panhandle.
“Now, I stand at six feet tall (182cm),” Mr Rhome said. “So that’s over my head.” Heavy rain of 25cm could be expected, increasing to 38cm in some areas, and more if the storm slowed or stalled over land, he added.
Debby is expected to lose some strength after landfall but bring heavy rain as it crosses central Florida out to the Atlantic coast, before crawling up to Savannah, Georgia, and then onward to Charleston, South Carolina, early in the week.
Ocean surges are forecast for Bonita Beach northward to Tampa Bay. Those surges could send sea waves further inland than normal, damaging structures and endangering anyone in their path.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the extreme southern Florida and stretching as far north as the Fort Myers area, which was crushed by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Debby is expected to follow a similar track as Hurricane Ian, which killed at least 103 people in Florida and caused billions of dollars in damage as it made its way along the Gulf Coast.
Only one hurricane, Beryl, has formed in the Atlantic so far in 2024. The earliest Category 5 storm on record, it ravaged the Caribbean and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula before rolling up the Gulf Coast of Texas as a Category 1 storm, with winds up to 153kmh. REUTERS
