The Floridian coast has been battered by a Category One storm named Debby, which has left at least six people dead. Photos emerged from South Florida cities showing cars submerged under water and extensive flooding in Tampa. The city’s airport descended into chaos with hundreds of cancelations and delays, causing a knock-on effect in nearby Sarasota-Bradenton International.
Storm Debby crashed into Levy County on Monday, August 5, where a 12-year-old girl died under a falling tree. Another 12-year-old child died along with his mother in a car crash in Dixie County, and a truck driver was killed when his cab flipped into a river. In Southern Georgia, a 19-year-old died from a falling tree. Power outages were noted in the Big Bend region as the storm moved north to Georgia, where the Mayor of Savannah warned residents to “hunker down.”
Heavy rain, high winds, and flooding have also been recorded in North and South Carolina. President Biden has declared a state of emergency in those states, as well as in Florida. Across the Sunshine State, hundreds were rescued from flooding, including in Sarasota, where fire chief David Rathbun said “twice the amount of the rain that was predicted” had fallen.
Governor Ron DeSantis deployed more than 3,000 National Guard officers to help with rescue efforts and described Debby as a “very saturating, wet storm.”
By August 6, experts were warning of tornadoes in the Carolinas and up to 20 inches of rain. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that the situation in North and South Carolina was likely to be “life-threatening.”
In other parts of the country, a tornado swirled through Buffalo, New York, on August 5, while in California, firefighters dealt with 94 wildfires across the state. State agency Cal Fire reports indicated that the fires affected over 400,000 hectares, destroying hundreds of “structures.”
In Maryland, a 5-year-old died when a bounce house he was playing in became airborne under high winds. Charles County officials said the bounce house was elevated by approximately 20 feet before crashing into the playing field at Regency Furniture Stadium. Two children were rushed to a local hospital, where one was later pronounced dead, and the other remains in a critical condition.