Preparing for Debby, Governor Ron DeSantis called up 3000 National Guard and placed most of Florida's cities and counties under emergency orders, while evacuations were ordered in parts of the Gulf Coast counties of Pasco Hernando and Citrus.
"It's become clearer and clearer that Debby will become a hurricane before it makes landfall," said Jamie Rhome, the deputy director of the National Hurricane Centre, urging people to heed evacuation orders.
11pm EDT — National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) #Debby Key Messages: There is a danger of life-threatening storm surge for portions of the Gulf coast of #Florida from Aripeka to Indian Pass, where a Storm Surge Warning is in effect. Heavy rain will likely result in flash flooding for parts of the southeastern U.S. pic.twitter.com/HosMJ9iz0zAugust 4, 2024
The agency on Sunday revised its forecast for Debby, which had become a named tropical storm late on Saturday after spending days as a broad, sloppy system in the Atlantic.
The storm was crawling at 23km/h into the Gulf Coast about 386km south-southwest of Tampa, where its winds were expected to escalate to 113km/h or more as it gained strength to become a hurricane.
It had left Cuba's northern coast on Saturday evening when it was about 160km west-southwest of Key West in Florida, the hurricane centre said.
"This is a life-threatening situation," it said in a report.
There were "a host of hazards, not just the wind", Rhome said
He warned of storm surges up to two metres along Florida's Big Bend area where Debby was expected to hit just southeast of Florida's Panhandle.
"I stand at six feet tall, so that's over my head," Rhome said.
Debby is expected to take a similar track to Hurricane Ian, which killed 103 people in 2022. (AP PHOTO)
He said heavy rain of 25cm and 38cm in parts could be expected - more if the storm slowed down or stalled over land.
Debby is expected to cut across Central Florida out to the Atlantic coast and crawl up to Savannah, Georgia, and then toward Charleston, South Carolina.
Ocean 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.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for extreme southern Florida, stretching as far north as the Fort Myers area crushed by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Debby is expected to take a similar track as Hurricane Ian, which killed 103 people in Florida and caused damage running into billions of dollars as it barrelled along the Gulf Coast.
Only one hurricane, Beryl, has formed in the Atlantic this year.
The earliest category five storm on record, it ravaged the Caribbean and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula before rolling up the Gulf Coast of Texas as a category one storm with winds up to 153km/h.
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