Florida, United States.- Authorities in the Gulf of Florida on Sunday ordered a partial evacuation of the region in the face of the advance of tropical storm “Debby,” which could escalate into a hurricane and cause “potentially historic” rainfall in the southeastern United States.
“Debby,” now rapidly strengthening in an unusually warm Gulf of Mexico, is expected to hit Florida’s Big Bend region at hurricane force sometime Sunday night.
It will then slowly weaken but continue to bring significant rainfall to Florida, southeastern Georgia and South Carolina over the next five days, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned on Sunday.
NHC spokesman Mike Brennan said Sunday that Florida’s entire west coast was under a tropical storm warning and urged residents, particularly on the northwest coast and Florida peninsula, to “find a safe place to take shelter before nightfall.”
At 8 a.m. local time, the storm was located about 255 kilometers southwest of the city of Tampa, with maximum sustained winds of 96 km per hour and moving northwest at 21 km/h, the warning said.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for parts of Citrus County, Florida, on Saturday night, while eight other counties were evacuated voluntarily, local media reported.
“We have to take this situation seriously,” Hernando County Fire Chief and Public Safety Director Paul Hasenmeier told reporters Saturday night.
Brennan predicted “multiple days of very, very heavy rainfall,” possibly at record levels, and warned of the possibility of severe flash flooding “in areas that don’t normally flood.”
Forecasters warned of a storm surge of up to 10 feet (3 meters) high that could be “life-threatening,” and said Debby could spawn tornadoes Sunday night or early Monday in Florida and Georgia.
President Joe Biden on Sunday approved an emergency declaration for Florida, which will speed up federal aid.
State Governor Ron DeSantis activated the local National Guard to assist in the storm response.
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