Hurricane Debby makes landfall in Florida

Hurricane Debby downgraded into a tropical storm as it moved over Northern Florida Monday. The downgrade does not mean, however, that Debby is without danger.
At least four people have been confirmed dead since Debby’s landing.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Monday afternoon in a statement that urged residents “to protect life and property from rising water.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has mobilized 3,000 National Guard for relief efforts.
Forecasters warned area residents Monday to expect historic levels of rainfall and catastrophic flooding as Debby moves over Florida and the southeastern region of the U.S.
The NHC also warned Monday about the possibility of “a few tornadoes” over central and northern Florida, southeastern Georgia and parts of South Carolina Monday.
Debby is moving with maximum sustained winds of 100 kilometers (about 62.14 miles) per hour. The tropical storm is expected to weaken as it moves, but NHC has warned that restrengthening could occur Wednesday.
The storm could also bring ashore a surge of water three meters (10 feet) above normal tides in some areas. Storm surge is the top cause of deaths from hurricanes, according to the NHC.
After impacting Florida, the storm is expected to move north slowly, dumping massive amounts of rain on Florida, Georgia and South Carolina in the coming days.
Rainfall amounts of 15-30 centimeters (about 11.81 inches) are expected in Florida, and 25-50 centimeters (10-19.7 inches) in Georgia and South Carolina. The governors of all three have already declared states of emergency to help speed relief efforts. More than 245,000 outages have been reported in the three states, according to poweroutage.us.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.