Horrifying pictures have revealed the devastating impact of Hurricane Debby after the storm made landfall in the Big Bend of Florida.
Huge torrents of rain have caused significant damage and killed at least five people so far, two of whom were children.
The center of Debby is about 60 miles north-northwest of Jacksonville, Florida, and experts expect the tropical storm to dump historic amounts of rain and bring catastrophic flooding from northern Florida to southeastern North Carolina through Friday night.
Even though maximum sustained winds have slowed to about 45 miles per hour, the storm has laid waste to much of the Gulf Coast of Florida, leaving downed power lines, flooded streets and fallen trees.
Charleston could be hit with over two feet of rain over the next five days, while Savannah may receive the typical rainfall over an entire summer over that same time period. As such, both cities have been placed under a mandatory curfew.
The most recent hurricane projections suggest South Carolina will be hit as soon as Thursday at 2pm ET
Due to Debby’s slow movement on land, some areas could be drenched with 10 to 30 inches of rainfall, which will likely worsen cause even more damage to roads, bridges and other key pieces of infrastructure
The storm is expected to slowly move east through Georgia, then swing into the Atlantic ocean by Tuesday. By Wednesday, Debby will turn north and could strengthen before making landfall in South Carolina by Thursday evening.
North Carolina will be hit as well, with the storm expected to make an appearance there some time Friday.
As the storm mostly moves past Florida, over 133,000 customers in the state remain without power as of 1am ET, according to poweroutage.us.
That number is more than 28,000 in Georgia, a figure that’s likely to climb as winds and rain become more intense throughout the morning on Tuesday.
All of this comes as authorities have released the most up to date death toll from the devastating storm – five people have died so far, four in Florida and one in Georgia.
A 19-year-old was killed in Moultrie, Georgia, after a tree fell on the side of a home Monday afternoon, marking the latest death.
Moultrie is located in south Georgia, around 200 miles south of Atlanta.
A similar tragedy unfolded in Levy County, Florida, where a 13-year-old boy was crushed by a tree that fell onto his mobile home, marking the first life claimed by the storm.
The second person to die was driving a tractor-trailer near Tampa early Monday. The 64-year-old Mississippi man behind the wheel lost control on the slick road and plunged off an interstate bridge into a canal, according to Florida Highway Patrol.
Pictured: A tree fell onto the home of a 13-year-old boy. The trunk fatally crushed him. He was the first to lose his life to the hurricane
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue is pictured pulling a tractor-trailer from the water after it veered off the road in the early morning hours on Monday
Tragically, the driver of the truck did not survive the fall
‘The vehicle rotated, collided with a concrete barrier wall along the outside shoulder and traveled over the wall,’ the highway patrol wrote in a press release following the incident.
‘The trailer came to rest hanging from the bridge while the cab separated and fell into the Tampa Bypass Canal.’
Heartbreaking photos show members of Florida’s Hillsborough County Fire Rescue team pulling the truck out of the water.
A 38-year-old woman and 12-year-old boy were also killed in a car crash in Dixie County, Florida, on Sunday evening.
A 14-year-old boy that was also in the car is in critical condition, CNN reported.
Witnesses to the single-vehicle crash told police the car lost control and ‘struck the guardrail in the center median, then re-directed, overturning, leaving the roadway to the right,’ according to the statement from the Highway Patrol.
None of three people were wearing seatbelts, police added.
Police and first responders are seen boating through what were once drivable streets to rescue people from submerged homes
A member of the Sarasota Sherriff’s Department is seen wading into water that’s above his waist
In Gulfport, a Tampa-adjacent city, a man’s body was found by police after witnesses said he anchored his sailboat near Gulfport’s Veteran’s Park, FOX 13 reported.
The man hasn’t yet been positively identified, but the man on the boat is believed to be 48-year-old Brian Clough.
Clough reportedly lives on his boat with his dog, who was rescued by nearby boaters.
Slightly further south in Sarasota, Florida, police and first responders piloted through flooded streets and successfully evacuated roughly 500 people from homes that were underwater.
The city, which is roughly 60 miles from Tampa, got more than a foot of rain from the storm, more than a month’s worth.
The extreme flooding from Debby has also wreaked havoc on critical infrastructure throughout the state.
One example came in south Hillsborough County, near Tampa, where a 15 foot section of road completely caved in thanks to a dormant sinkhole being torn open by the gushing water.
Officials closed the road to traffic on Monday.
Brian Clough, another presumed victim of the deadly tropical storm, is pictured alongside his dog
A 15 foot section of road in south Hillsborough County, near Tampa, completely caved in thanks to a dormant sinkhole being torn open by the gushing water
Sailboats docked in Tampa Bay are pictured coming untied and crashing into the seawall
A transfer truck lies overturned on Independence Parkway in Tampa
This family meanwhile decided to take their ATV for a spin, testing it in the now completely flooded streets of eastern Hillsborough County
Due to Debby’s slow movement on land, some areas could be drenched with 10 to 30 inches of rainfall, which will likely worsen cause even more damage to roads, bridges and other key pieces of infrastructure.
As the situation worsens throughout the south, governors are getting serious about response strategies.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has deployed 2,000 state national guard troops to assist with evacuations and rescues.
Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, a state that hasn’t been hit yet, has preemptively declared a state of emergency.
President Joe Biden has also approved emergency declaration request from Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, a move that will mobilize relief efforts.