Hurricane Debbie made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend at 7 a.m. ET on Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The storm reached maximum sustained winds of about 80 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane.
According to the NHC, the hurricane was moving in a north/northeast direction at 10 mph and made landfall near Steinhatchee, Florida, about 70 miles southeast of Tallahassee.
The center said Hurricane Debbie is “expected to bring life-threatening storm surge to parts of Florida and severe flooding to the southeastern United States.”
In an early morning update, the NHC warned that flash flooding and urban flooding was possible across the Southeast this week.
The storm is expected to dump totals of 6 to 12 inches of rain in central and northern Florida, with up to 18 inches, the agency said. Parts of southeastern Georgia, the South Carolina coastal plain and southeastern North Carolina “may experience record rainfall amounts,” and “catastrophic flooding is likely,” it added. Those areas are expected to get 10 to 20 inches of rain, with up to 30 inches in some places.
The NHC said a few tornadoes were possible in central and northern Florida and southeastern Georgia during the day on Monday, with the threat extending into parts of South Carolina later in the day and into the evening.
By 8 a.m. ET, more than 250,000 of Florida’s 11.4 million customers were without power, according to poweroutage.us. TrackerNearly all customers in Jefferson and Taylor counties lost power, as did most residents of neighboring counties.
