At least five people were killed after Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, with forecasters warning that several more days of devastation are to come.
After hundreds of people were rescued from flooded homes in Florida, meteorologists said Tuesday morning that other states will face a similar deluge. “Debby is expected to produce potentially historic rainfall totals of 10 to 20 inches, with maximum amounts of 25 inches, bringing areas of catastrophic flooding across portions of southeast Georgia, the eastern half of South Carolina, and southeast North Carolina through Friday,” the National Hurricane Center said.
As of 5 a.m. ET, Debby was inland over southeastern Georgia moving northeast. The center of the storm is “expected to move offshore the coast of Georgia later today, drift offshore through early Thursday, and then move inland over South Carolina on Thursday,” according to the hurricane center.
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At least four deaths in Florida have been linked to Debby, which made landfall on the state’s Big Bend coast on Monday morning.
On Sunday night, a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy were killed in a car crash in Dixie County, with witnesses saying the car lost control due to the wet road and inclement road, according to WJXT-TV. A 13-year-old boy was fatally crushed Monday when a tree fell on a mobile home in Fanning Springs, and the 64-year-old driver of an 18-wheeler died after his vehicle careened off the road and into the Tampa Bypass Canal.
In Georgia, a 19-year-old man died when a tree fell on a home in Moultrie—the state’s first death linked to Debby, according to WALB-TV.
