“Catastrophic rain” is what Florida officials said Sunday they expect when Tropical Storm Debby comes ashore Monday, likely as a category 1 or 2 hurricane.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other state officials held multiple media briefings Sunday as Debby started to move over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters and targeted the Big Bend area of the state.
"Tomorrow, we're going to see the storm make landfall here in Florida, and then begin to meander northeast from the coast," the governor said. "And it's going to move likely pretty slow, which is not really what you want, because it allows the storm to churn and to dump more water throughout the region. So, it's going to be wet. We're going to have a lot of inundation that is going to present hazards and is going to present challenges."
Florida Department of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said the situation coming from Debby will change Monday.
“Two days ago, this was just going to be a rain event. Now we have a wind and a rain event, but the winds are going to subside pretty quickly once it makes landfall. And then we're going to be in to a catastrophic rain situation where we have situations in Florida that will receive 15, maybe as high as 20 inches of rain.”
Guthrie stressed that everything depends on how the storm system reacts to the warm Gulf water:
“As the governor said Tropical Storm Debbie is set to become a hurricane by tonight. Before it reaches the Florida Big Bend coast. I was talking to our meteorologists this morning. And again there is a one in three chance that this may have a rapid intensification.”
The briefings came amid an ongoing tornado watch in Southwest Florida and beyond as well as innumerable streets in Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties that were closed due to flooding.
At the second briefing Sunday, held at 3:30 p.m. at the state emergency operations center in Tallahassee, DeSantis and Guthrie reiterated and stressed many safety aspects as it related to Debby.
"Now's the time to exercise your disaster preparedness plan. The storm we're already seeing impacts in southwest Florida, we're going to continue to see impacts across the west coast of Florida," DeSantis urged. "But it is going to, the eye of the storm is going to hit the state of Florida tomorrow. So execute your plan. If you have been ordered to evacuate by your local officials, you know, please heed that call."
Guthrie added: "If you're ordered to evacuate by local officials, and there are several evacuation orders in place, please remember, you only had to travel 10s of miles to those shelters, you do not need to travel all the way across the state."
State officials say residents, no matter where they are, need to make sure they're paying attention to storm updates.
For example, Sunday from 10:25 until 10:45 a.m., a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located 8 miles southeast of Golden Gate Estates, moving north at 45 mph and weather radar indicated rotation. Residents in that area were advised to be on alert.
Areas under the alert included: Ave Maria, Golden Gate Estates, Immokalee, Orangetree, Big Corkscrew Island, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Picayune Strand State Forest, the intersection of I-75 and Everglades Boulevard, and Lake Trafford.
Central Charlotte County, southwestern DeSoto County and east-central Sarasota County were under a tornado watch briefly from 5:12 to 5:30 Sunday afternoon.
Another tornado watch alert was issued at 10:55 a.m. and expired at 8 p.m. for much of Southwest Florida including Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Hendry, Glades and DeSoto counties.
Other counties in the watch included: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Leon, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Nassau, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Seminole, St. Johns, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Volusia, Wakulla.
The rainfall was an issue as well.
Shortly before 12:30 Sunday, the Sanibel City Manager's Office issued a caution advisory: "Over the past hour, conditions on Sanibel have deteriorated with heavy rain and squally wind conditions reported. Winds have been reported sustained at 28 mph with gusts of 43 mph in Tarpon Bay. Some roads are experiencing flooding, and the Sanibel Police Department advises residents not to travel on roadways unless it is necessary. Motorist should avoid traveling through standing water. Lighthouse Beach Park, Trost Parking Lot (Tarpon Bay Road), and Blind’s Pass Beach Park lots are temporarily closed to flooding conditions. Closures are being issued due to large amounts of standing water and high tide flooding in parking areas."
In Fort Myers Beach, Lee County reported the high tide (noon) had produced some localized coastal flooding near Times Square.
Fort Myers Beach officials encouraged residents to stay off the roads.
"It is possible there is still debris in the water from Hurricane Ian, that could resurface, making it dangerous to swim or drive through water that has made its way on land," Nicole Berzin, the Fort Myers Beach Public Information Officer, said in an emailed notice.
Lee County Transit (LeeTran) temporarily suspended its service to Fort Myers Beach. Residents should monitor LeeTran social media for updates on the resumption of service.
The Fort Myers Beach Fire District is advising motorists to avoid traveling in the Town as high tide passes. The district asks motorists to stay home and stay off the island’s roads.
Also reporting flooding were areas in St. James City on Pine Island, and in parts of south Cape Coral.
County officials said personnel from the Department of Public Safety, Department of Transportation, Natural Resources and other county departments are throughout the county to monitor, assess and take steps necessary to keep the community safe as Debby continues north offshore.
Lee County DOT crews were prepared to remove debris and respond as soon as the water recedes, expected to happen around 2 p.m., as the tide goes out. Roadside ditches and swales that are designed to drain may hold water for some time.
In Fort Myers, the northbound lanes of the Edison Bridge were closed due to flooding, city officials reported shortly after 2:30 p.m. A detour to the I-75 bridge via Bayshore Road was suggested.
In Collier County, county officials urged motorists to avoid using roadways if possible, and if driving was necessary, use caution as flooding conditions may worsen, particularly during high tides.
The following roads in Collier were closed due to high tide and flooded roadways:
- Arbor Blvd is under water from Vineyards Blvd to Fountain Run
Santa Barbara Blvd is flooded at Green Blvd - Old Livingston Road is flooded at the intersections of Hunters Road and Sandlewood Lane
- The intersection of San Marco Road and U.S. 41 is closed in all directions due to flooding
- The East Trail of US 41 from Spruce Street to Airport-Pulling has major flooding and several downed trees
- Logan Blvd. has standing water from Pine Ridge Road to Vanderbilt Beach Road
- Copper Drive and Frank Whiteman Blvd have standing water at 14th Street N
- Vanderbilt Drive is closed between Wiggins Pass and Dunes Blvd
- Gulf Shore Drive is closed between Vanderbilt Beach and Bluebill
- In the Bayshore Drive area: Danford Street, Becca Avenue, Shoreview Drive, and Weeks Avenue are impassable
- Near Everglades City: Copeland Avenue South and Riverside Drive are impassable. San Marco Drive is flooded between Goodland and US 41
- Manatee Road from Collier Blvd. to US 41 is flooded
Anyone experiencing or seeing flooding in Collier County was asked to report it to 239-252-8924.
In Charlotte County, North Beach Road is closed at the Sarasota County line. This closure is required due to erosion at Middle Beach in Sarasota County.
The Sunseeker boardwalk is closed and will reopen around noon Monday.
All streets in downtown Punta Gorda both east and west of U.S. 41 are closed due to the flooding conditions.
More from the media briefings
At the Sunday morning briefing DeSantis described state efforts to construct flood control devices at utility stations in advance of Debby.
“First time we've ever done this with utility," DeSantis said. "So there have substations we're gonna have a lot of water. If those substations flood that's going to cause power interruption.”
DeSantis said the flood control devices have been provided to the substations as well as to schools and other possibly threatened and critical structures.
“We think that that's going to be be able to mitigate some of the power outages that we're going to be doing. That's the first time Florida has ever done the flood, the flood control devices at utility stations," he said. "And we have had a few local communities that have really embraced it and it's been been effective.”
Sunday afternoon DeSantis elaborated:
"We have at the state level constructed more than 9,400 feet of flood protection devices to support critical infrastructure against flooding impacts. So for the first time, Florida and its partners are deploying these flood control barriers around utility substations as a best practice to ensure power is maintained throughout the storm. For as many Floridians as possible when we saw hurricane in the substations that were higher up or an impacted by the water made it much easier to effectuate power restoration. And so our hope is here to mitigate the power interruptions as a result of this storm."
Earlier, Guthrie had described the deployment of flood control devices around substations.
"This has been a best practice for hospitals inside a hurricane Ian and Idalia. And now we're taking that to substations and wastewater treatment plants water treatment plants," he said. "If you are a municipality or a county, an electrical entity. We still have some time to put that out. We have over 10 miles of the flood control devices."
The governor said that emergency workers have also pre-staged more than 30,000 bottles of water, more than 160,000 meals and nearly 14,000 tarps in the parts of Florida where Debby is expected to impact.
The governor also said the following resources have been placed on standby or identified for future use:
- Three thousand service members from the Florida National Guard are on standby to assist with the State Emergency Response. That includes search and rescue route clearance, commodity distribution and protection of critical infrastructure as needed.
- Florida National Guard has 10 rotary aircraft and over 400 tactical vehicles that are staged to support relief operations.
- The Florida State Guard has been activated and have over 100 soldiers ready with nine shallow water vehicles 10 UTVs and two amphibious rescue vehicles.
- The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has their full fleet of air boats and Jon boats and 12 swift water rescue teams.
- Florida's power companies have identified up to 17,000 linemen that are ready to go in and restore power when the storm passes.
- Also on hand for the storm statewide, the governor said there are almost 11 million bottles of water, almost 33 million shelf-stable meals, 3,600 sandbags, and nearly 14,000 tarps.
Jared Perdue, Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, gave a rundown of what state highway department workers have been preparing to help those who may need to evacuate.
"We started coordination calls and staging and moving and mobilizing resources, as early as Monday of this week. We take these storms very seriously. We want to be prepared to respond at a moment's notice," Perdue said. "And we've already begun securing all of our construction projects throughout the state, especially in the vicinity of the impact area all of our coastal bridge projects, and even projects along State routes and interstate system to help people move around we secure those projects and shut those projects down so people can move around freely."
Perdue added that workers have been preparing FDOT facilities, making sure travel lanes and shoulders are clear from debris and ready to handle evacuations if they're ordered.
"We've already extended our Road Ranger service patrolled a 24/7 operation to facilitate people safely moving around and getting where they need to go," he said.
FEMA response for aid
In response to the storm system, FEMA announced Sunday that federal disaster assistance would be available to Florida to supplement response efforts due to emergency conditions beginning Aug. 1 and continuing.
The action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize and provide, at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.
Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance and reimbursement for mass care including evacuation and shelter support, will be provided at 75% federal funding for Alachua, Baker, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Collier, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Franklin, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Hendry, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Lee, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Monroe, Nassau, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Putnam, Sarasota, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union and Wakulla counties.
Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75% federal funding for Bay, Bradford, Brevard, Calhoun, DeSoto, Escambia, Flagler, Gadsden, Glades, Hardee, Highlands, Holmes, Jackson, Okaloosa, Okeechobee, Orange, Polk, Santa Rosa, Seminole, St. Johns, Volusia, Walton and Washington counties.
And Debby is doing what?
As of Sunday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Hunter aircraft observations indicate that Debby continues to intensify over the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The NHC said that satellite imagery shows that the cloud pattern is becoming better developed with increasing deep convection near the center of circulation, and radar data indicate that an eyewall is beginning to form.
Debby will be moving over very warm waters and in a low-vertical shear environment prior to landfall. Therefore, the NHC reported that significant strengthening is likely through tonight, especially if the cyclone forms a well-defined inner core.
The official forecast is near the high side of the objective guidance and calls for the system to become a hurricane within 12 hours. The cyclone will weaken after it moves inland, but since the system will not be far from the coastline for the next few days, it is not predicted to fall below tropical storm strength through 72 hours.
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