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Hurricane Debby makes landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast

Category 1 storm could cause dangerous surges, heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding

Hurricane Debby made landfall as a Category 1 storm in the Big Bend region of Florida's Gulf Coast on Monday morning and began a slow crawl across the state, causing potentially dangerous storm surges, heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding.

The hurricane came ashore near Steinhatchee, Florida, about 115km southeast of Tallahassee, packing maximum sustained winds of 130kmph, the National Hurricane Centre said.

The system grew from a slow moving tropical storm that gained strength from warm Gulf waters. The hurricane centre forecast life-threatening conditions, including storm surges up to three metres in some areas.

The storm could bring "potentially historic rainfall" of between 25 and 50cm and catastrophic flooding to Georgia and South Carolina, the NHC said. Local areas could receive 70.2cm of rain by Friday morning.

"This is going to be the story of this storm," said Jamie Rhome, the deputy director of the hurricane center. "It's slow motion is going to dump historic amounts of rainfall — potentially over 50cm. You're talking about catastrophic flooding."

Rhome said Debby was fuelled by exceptionally warm Gulf waters.

It bears some of the hallmarks of Hurricane Harvey, which hit Corpus Christi, Texas, in August 2017. While downgraded into a tropical storm as it moved inland, Harvey lingered over the state, dumping about 127 inches of rain on Houston.

Harvey is rated as one of the wettest storms in US history, causing more than 100 deaths and $125 billion in damage, primarily from flooding in the Houston metropolitan area.

Climate scientists believe man-made global warming from burning fossil fuels has raised the temperature of the oceans, making storms bigger and more devastating.

Some 143,000 Floridians were without power, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference soon after the storm made landfall.

Preparing for Debby, DeSantis called up 3,000 National Guard troops and placed most of the state's cities and counties under emergency orders, while mandatory evacuations were ordered in parts of the Gulf Coast counties of Citrus, Dixie, Franklin, Levy and Wakulla.

DeSantis said on Sunday there were more than 17,000 linemen and other electric workers ready to restore power.

The governors of Georgia and South Carolina also declared states of emergency ahead of the storm.

Debby became a tropical storm late on Saturday after pushing off north Cuba. As of 11pm EDT, the hurricane was about 161km west of Tampa and moving towards the Gulf Coast at 19kmph, with maximum sustained winds of 120kmph, the NHC said.

Earlier, the eye of Debby was forecast reach Florida's Big Bend coast by midday on Monday, and then to move slowly across northern Florida and southern Georgia on Monday and Tuesday, it said.

The storm is expected to lose some strength after landfall but bring heavy rain as it crosses central Florida out to the Atlantic coast, before crawling up to Savannah, Georgia, and then onward to Charleston, South Carolina, this week, lingering while dumping catastrophic amounts of rain.

Storm surges forecast for Bonita Beach northward to Tampa Bay could send sea waves further inland than normal, damaging structures and endangering anyone in their path.

The last hurricane to make a direct hit on the Big Bend region was Hurricane Idalia, which briefly gained Category 4 strength before making landfall as a Category 3 in August 2023, with winds of more than 201kmph. The National Centres for Environmental Information estimates there were $3.5 billion in damages.

Forecasters expect a large number of Atlantic hurricanes in the 2024 season, which began on June 1, with four to seven seen as major. That exceeds the record-breaking 2005 season that spawned the devastating Katrina and Rita hurricanes.

Only one hurricane, Beryl, has yet formed in the Atlantic this year. The earliest Category 5 storm on record, it struck the Caribbean and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula before rolling up the Gulf Coast of Texas as a Category 1 storm, with sustained winds up to 152kmph.