Hurricane Debby has made landfall at the Big Bend region of Florida’s Gulf Coast, with fears of storm surges and catastrophic flooding.
The weather system strengthened into a Category One hurricane late on Sunday and came ashore near Steinhatchee on Monday morning, said the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
It is now forecast to move slowly across the state, packing 80mph winds and dumping as much as 30in (76cm) of rain as it moves north.
The fourth named storm of the season will also soak Georgia and South Carolina in the days ahead.
The slow-moving nature of the storm could mean historic amounts of rainfall, said Jamie Rhome, the deputy director of the hurricane center.
“You’re talking about catastrophic flooding.”
Already the storm’s strong winds are impacting Floridians – some 204,000 homes and businesses are without power in the state, according to PowerOutage.com.
Debby is expected to slow down dramatically on its journey across Florida as the steering flow of winds high in the atmosphere essentially collapses.
