Travel impacted by Debby as deadly storm forces thousands of flight cancellations, delays

TAMPA Deadly Tropical Storm Debby continues to lash Florida and the Southeast with damaging wind gusts and flooding rain after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday morning, and that’s having a major impact on travel for thousands of people hoping to catch a flight to or from places like Tampa and Orlando in Florida, and Charlotte in North Carolina.

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Debby, which was downgraded from a hurricane to tropical storm after making landfall along Florida’s Big Bend, was impacting travel across the U.S. starting over the weekend.

Airports reported nearly 10,000 delays and about 2,400 flights that were canceled on Sunday.

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Is my flight to Florida canceled because of Debby?

This graphic shows the current delays and cancellations at airports on Monday, August 5, 2024.
(FOX Weather)

 

With now-Troical Storm Debby continuing to funnel in damaging winds and flooding rain to Florida and the Southeast, thousands of flights have once again been impacted.

Currently, there are more than 4,700 flights that have been delayed, and another 2,800 have been canceled.

Orlando International Airport (MCO) has so far canceled about 230 flights, while Tampa International Airport (TPA) along the Gulf Coast has had just over 150 cancellations.

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And as deadly Tropical Storm Debby slowly creeps farther north, flights are now being impacted at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) in the mid-Atlantic.

Anyone with plans to travel and catch a flight on Monday should call their airline before heading to the airport to make sure the flight is still on time and hasn’t been canceled.

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At least 4 dead as Debby weakens to tropical storm

At least four deaths have been attributed to Hurricane Debby.

Officials confirmed two deaths in Dixie County, Florida, as Debby approached the coastline.

A 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy, both from Crawfordville, were killed in a crash just before 9:30 p.m. Sunday on U.S. Highway 19 after their car lost control and struck a guardrail.

A 13-year-old boy was also killed about 8 a.m. Monday after a tree fell on his home in Levy County. No other injuries were reported, deputies said.

Officials said a fourth person died when the driver of a tractor-trailer lost control on Interstate 75 near the Tampa Bypass Canal and crashed into a concrete barrier wall. The 64-year-old New Albany, Mississippi, man’s trailer then hung over the bridge while the cab fell into the water.

Divers from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office located the cab in the water about 40 feet below the surface, and the man was found dead inside.

The Category 1 hurricane made landfall near Steinhatchee around 7 a.m. ET with winds estimated at around 80 mph. After landfall, power outages began to skyrocket to more than 300,000 utility customers in the Sunshine State, according to PowerOutage.us.

Numbers have slowly been falling, but until conditions improve across the region, utility crews can’t get out to make repairs.

Power outage numbers are also starting to jump in Georgia, with just under 25,000 reported there, according to PowerOutage.us.