See it: Debby’s hurricane-force winds slam Florida at landfall after intensifying over Gulf of Mexico

STEINHATCHEE, Fla. Florida‘s Nature Coast is experiencing the impact of Hurricane Debby, which made landfall along the Big Bend early Monday morning.

This marks the second hurricane of the season in the Atlantic Basin to reach the U.S. The landfall location is only 15 miles away from where Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Keaton Beach one year ago.

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Debby is bringing a life-threatening storm surge, strong winds and record-breaking rainfall to the Sunshine State, causing widespread concerns. 

The latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) indicates that Debby is expected to move slowly across the Southeast this week, resulting in extreme amounts of rain. 

The NHC is also forecasting potentially historic rainfall across southeastern Georgia and South Carolina until Friday, leading to widespread catastrophic flash flooding and life-threatening conditions. 

FOX Weather Storm Specialist Mike Seidel was strategically positioned in Steinhatchee, Florida, to document the Category 1 storm’s landfall about 7 a.m. ET. 

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FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray was in Perry, Florida, at the time of landfall when Debby’s eyewall moved through Taylor County, where residents were still recovering after Idalia devastated parts of the county.

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A hotel visitor in Perry was seen keeping an entry door from swinging open as Debby made landfall with winds estimated at 80 mph. After landfall, power outages skyrocketed to more than 300,000 utility customers in the Sunshine State, according to PowerOutage.us.

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Hurricane Debby closed in on Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 1 storm, and early video from Cedar Key shows why storm surge is one of the biggest threats from this tropical cyclone.

As the center of the storm passed Cedar Key, the winds became more onshore as the surge rocked the island city off the northwestern coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico.

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This is only the beginning of Debby’s impact, and the worst is yet to come, the FOX Forecast Center said. The storm is expected to slow to a crawl near the Southeast coast this week. 

Catastrophic flooding will be possible across the coastal plain of southeastern Georgia and South Carolina by midweek in response to historic rainfall topping 20 inches, with local amounts up to 30 inches.