Hurricane warnings in Florida as Tropical Storm Debby approaches

Tropical Storm Debby has been strengthening rapidly and is predicted to become a hurricane as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico on a collision course with the Florida coast.

The National Hurricane Center said in an update posted at 8 am local (1200 GMT) on Sunday that Debby was located about 250 kilometres southwest of Tampa, Florida, and about 330 kilometres south-southwest of Cedar Key, Florida.

The storm was moving north-northwest at 20 kilometres per hour with maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometres per hour, up from 80 kilometres per hour just a few hours ago.

The storm was strengthening over the southeastern Gulf and expected to be a hurricane before making landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida, the hurricane centre said.

“I’d urge all Floridians to be cognisant of the fact that we are going to have a hurricane hit the state, probably a Category 1, but it could be a little bit more powerful than that,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Sunday morning briefing.

“But we are absolutely going to see a lot of rainfall. We are going to see a lot of saturation. We are going to see flooding events. That is going to happen. There is also going to be power outages," the governor said.

Drenching rain, coastal flooding

Wind and thunderstorms have spread over a broad area including southern Florida, the Florida Keys and the Bahamas.

Debby is likely to bring drenching rain and coastal flooding to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast by Sunday night and predictions show the system could come ashore as a hurricane Monday and cross over northern Florida into the Atlantic Ocean.

Forecasters warn it also could drop heavy rains over north Florida and the Atlantic coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina early next week.

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.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted the system will strengthen as it curves off the southwest Florida coast, where the water has been extremely warm.

Intensification was expected to proceed more quickly later on Sunday.

DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 61 of Florida's 67 counties, with the National Guard activating 3,000 guard members. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp made his own emergency proclamation on Saturday.

The White House said federal and Florida officials were in touch and FEMA “pre-positioned” resources including water and food.

In Tampa alone, officials gave out more than 30,000 sandbags to barricade against flooding.