LEVY COUNTY, Fla. – A 13-year-old boy was killed Monday morning when a tree fell on a mobile home in Levy County, just an hour after Hurricane Debby made landfall on the Big Bend coast of Florida at 7 a.m.
The Levy County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the home around 8 a.m. The boy died in the mobile home when the tree crushed it.
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No other injuries were reported, deputies said.
The Sheriff’s Office posted a statement to their website about the tragedy:
Sheriff (Bobby) McCallum has responded to the scene personally and is with the family. Our thoughts and prayers are with this family as they deal with this tragedy. We encourage everyone to use extreme caution as they begin to assess and clean up the damage. Downed powerlines and falling trees are among the many hazards. One life is too many. Please be safe.
Debby threatened to bring catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge as it slowly passes over the northern part of Florida.
Forecasters warned that, in the coming days, record-setting rain could pummel coastal Georgia and South Carolina as the storm heads east.
The storm made landfall as a Category 1 storm near Steinhatchee, a tiny community in northern Florida of less than 1,000 residents on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The small community where Hurricane Debby made landfall is roughly 20 miles from where Hurricane Idalia crashed ashore less than a year ago.
Forecasters said storm surge was expected to be the biggest threat for Florida, with 6 to 10 feet of inundation above ground level predicted in part of the zone near the Big Bend.
“That part of the coast is a very vulnerable spot,” John Cangialosi, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, said Monday. Some areas, including Sarasota and Manatee counties, have already received 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 centimeters) of rain.
In Georgia, the National Weather Service is predicting major flooding on some rivers: the Canoochee River near Claxton, the Ohoopee River near Reidsville and the Ogeechee River near Eden. All those rivers were below flood stage Monday but could see their water levels more than double by later in the week.
Nearly 300,000 customers were without power in Florida and Georgia on Monday, according to PowerOutage.com.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said some 17,000 linemen are working to restore electricity. He warned residents in affected areas to sit tight until conditions are safe.
“When the water rises, when you have streets that can be flooded, that’s hazardous,” DeSantis said. “Don’t try to drive through this. We don’t want to see traffic fatalities adding up. Don’t tempt fate, don’t try to go through these flooded streets.”
A truck driver was killed early Monday after he lost control of his tractor trailer along a wet Interstate 75 in the Tampa area.
In Union County, some roads were already under water and numerous trees and power lines were down. The Union County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that residents were cleaning up from a tornado that touched down in the county Sunday night, damaging at least one home. No injuries were reported.
Hurricane Debby has followed a track “very similar to Idalia 11 months ago,” DeSantis said. Hurricane Idalia came ashore near Keaton Beach, Florida on Aug. 30, 2023, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. Keaton Beach is about 20 miles north of Steinhatchee. He noted there were fewer power outages with Debby.
Images posted on social media by Cedar Key Fire Rescue early Monday showed floodwaters rising along the streets of the city, located south of where the storm made landfall. Water was “coming in at a pretty heavy pace,” the post said.
Debby was expected to move eastward over northern Florida and then stall over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, thrashing the region with potential record-setting rains totaling up to 30 inches beginning Tuesday through Saturday morning. Flooding is expected to be especially severe in low-lying areas near the coast, including Savannah, Georgia; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called up 2,000 members of the Georgia National Guard.