DeSantis, Florida officials warn of 'catastrophic rain' coming with Tropical Storm Debby

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials early Sunday warned of "catastrophic rain" likely deluging a wide swath of north Florida as Tropical Storm Debby barreled toward land , almost certain to trigger widespread power outages.

DeSantis, who spoke from the state's Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, said the storm is expected to arrive as a Category 1 hurricane by landfall.

"It's possible that you could have serious intensification between now and landfall," he said. "It could get up to 85, 90, 95 mile an hour sustained winds. That is absolutely possible, particularly in parts of the state like here in Tallahassee, (and) there's going to be a lot of trees that are going to fall down."

Forecasters say the storm is expected to become a hurricane Sunday night; Debby's landfall Monday morning or afternoon will be Florida's first strike of 2024 in a hurricane season that forecasters say could become one of the worst on record.

Later on Sunday morning, President Biden approved a Florida emergency declaration for Tropical Storm Debby, approving "federal assistance and reimbursement for mass care, including evacuation and shelter support."

Also, Debby comes as much of Tallahassee is still recovering from the May 10 storms and tornadoes that ripped the area, toppling thousands of trees, shredding homes and other structures, and saturating the ground.

"We recognize when you're talking about an area like Tallahassee, there's a lot of trees," DeSantis said. "People like the trees, but with hurricanes, that's a lot of opportunity to have debris flying around (and) that makes it more likely that you're going to have power interruptions."

DeSantis said winds could gust up to 85-90 mph and rainfall could be in the 15-20 inch range. Referring to last year's Hurricane Idalia, DeSantis said "this storm is on a similar track. It may be a tick to the west of that. It very well may have greater impacts here in the Tallahassee region than Hurricane Idalia did."

As many as 17,000 line workers from inside and out of state are preparing to come to the area or are already staging, the governor added.

State emergency officials have been "working with the utility companies throughout Florida (on) restoring power ... I just urge all local governments, all utility companies to utilize these resources once the storm passes."

Debby "is potentially going to meander across that north Florida, south Georgia border at a very slow pace and so that means there's going to be a lot of water. You already have some of the rivers and the tributaries that are already high. You're going to end up with possibilities of flooding not just in the next two days but for many days afterwards," DeSantis said.

Florida Emergency Management chief Kevin Guthrie, who appeared with DeSantis, said Debby will be "a wind and a rain event, but the winds are going to subside pretty quickly once it makes landfall. Then we're going to be into a catastrophic rain situation where we ... will receive 15, maybe as high as 20 inches of rain."

But Guthrie also insisted the state is as ready as it can be, saying "the men and women of the state emergency response team are the best of the best" and that they "have been diligently working since last week."

Guthrie said a new weapon in the war on water will be flood barriers being set up around electrical substations and wastewater facilities, described as orange tubes filled with water and stacked around vulnerable facilities.

He didn't say where they're being deployed, but said "we wanted to set the standard for the United States on how to respond to a flood event."

DeSantis also drew a contrast between recent storm response and that of 2016's Hurricane Hermine that blew through Tallahassee and the Big Bend, leaving homes and businesses without electricity for weeks.

"Our view from the state is when these storms happen, of course you want to protect life and limb and property, and if people are in need of rescue, of course that's the number one (priority), but then get the power back on," he said.

"And that's why we've mobilized all these resources. We've been doing this on all the different storms," the governor added.

"They did not do that in Hermine, of course. ... We need to have a sense of urgency on this. If you have all these people that are just waiting and waiting for weeks on end for power, that makes it harder to do everything else you need to do."

This post contains previously reported information. News Director  Jim Rosica  can be reached at  jrosica@tallahassee.com . Follow him on X:  @JimRosicaFL .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis, others: Tropical Storm Debby will bring 'catastrophic rain'