The Mobile Fire-Rescue Department is ready to help with storm recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Debby reached the Big Bend coast of Florida early Monday, bringing with it the potential for record-setting rains, catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge as it moves slowly across the northern part of the state before stalling over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina.
In anticipation of expected flooding along the Gulf Coast of Florida, members of Alabama’s Task Force One (AL-TF1) Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR/US&R) mobilized over the weekend. Crews pre-staged water rescue assets, gear, supplies, tools and other necessary equipment.
The Type 1 swift water team will have 16 members, comprised of 15 MFRD personnel (field operatives and staff), and a member from Mobile County Communications District. The crew is responding after the Florida Division of Emergency Management requested aid.
Hurricane Debby made landfall as a Category 1 storm near Steinhatchee, a tiny community in northern Florida of less than 1,000 residents on Florida’s Gulf Coast. It had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (129 kph) and was moving northeast at 10 mph (17 kph), the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
The storm made landfall in one of the least populated areas of Florida, but forecasters warned heavy rain could spawn catastrophic flooding in Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. Nearly 214,000 customers were without power in Florida on Monday morning, according to PowerOutage.com.
A tornado watch also was in effect for parts of Florida and Georgia on Monday.
“Right now, we are to trying secure everything from floating away," said Sheryl Horne, whose family owns the Shell Island Fish Camp along the Wakulla River in St. Marks, Florida, where some customers moved their boats inland.
The sparsely populated Big Bend region in the Florida Panhandle also was hit last year by Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. The National Weather Service in Tallahassee said Monday morning that heavy flooding was the biggest concern in the Big Bend regions, with storm surge expected across Apalachee Bay.
Debby was expected to move eastward over northern Florida and then stall over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, thrashing the region with potential record-setting rains totaling up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) beginning Tuesday.
Officials also warned of life-threatening storm surge along Florida’s Gulf Coast, with 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3 meters) of inundation expected Monday between the Ochlockonee and Suwannee rivers.
Flooding could last through Friday and is expected to be especially severe in low-lying areas near the coast, including Savannah, Georgia; Hilton Head, South Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina. North Carolina officials were monitoring the storm's progress.
Officials in Savannah said the area could see a month’s worth of rain in four days if the system stalls over the region.
Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season after Tropical Storm Alberto, Hurricane Beryl and Tropical Storm Chris, all of which formed in June. In the Eastern Pacific, tropical storms Carlotta, Daniel and Emilia all churned over the ocean, but they weren’t threatening land.
