Hurricane Debby makes landfall in Florida; expected to pound Southeast

Hurricane Debby made landfall at 7 a.m. EST on Monday in the Florida Big Bend, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The storm reached maximum winds of approximately 80 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane.

It made landfall near Steinhatchee, Fla., roughly 70 miles southeast of Tallahassee, heading north/northeast direction at 10 mph, the NHC said.

The center said Hurricane Debby was “expected to bring life-threatening storm surge in portions of Florida and major flooding in the southeastern United States.”

In an early morning update, the NHC warned of flash and urban flooding across the Southeast this week.

It said the storm is expected to produce totals of 6 to 12 inches of rain, with maximum amounts of 18 inches, in central and northern Florida. Parts of southeast Georgia, the coastal plain of South Carolina, and southeast North Carolina should expect “potentially historic rainfall” that “will likely result in areas of catastrophic flooding,” it added. These areas are expected to get 10 to 20 inches of rainfall, with up to 30 inches in some places.

A few tornadoes are possible over central and northern Florida and southeastern Georgia during the day on Monday, with the threat extending to parts of South Carolina later in the day and into the night, the NHC said,

By 8 a.m. EST, more than 250,000 customers, out of 11.4 million in Florida, had lost power, according to the poweroutage.us tracker. In Jefferson and Taylor Counties, nearly all customers lost power, with large shares of the populations in nearby counties also without power.