Before 8 a.m. this morning, speaking from the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Governor Ron DeSantis addressed the state as Hurricane Debby, a Category 1 storm with "maximum sustained winds for Debby have reached 80 miles an hour with higher gusts," makes landfall. He emphasized, "We are still at a level 1 activation," and assured that "we continue to utilize all available resources of the state emergency response team to respond to the storm."
DeSantis compared Hurricane Debby to Hurricane Idalia from 11 months ago, noting, "This is a category 1 hurricane. It has followed a track very, very similar to Hurricane Idalia," but highlighted that "Idalia reached close to 120 miles per hour in sustained winds," whereas Debby's winds are lower.
The governor warned of the severe weather impacts: "We have seen significant storm surge. We have seen inundation. We have seen and will continue to see flooding in various parts of the state of Florida." He stressed that flooding would continue even after the storm passes, saying, "There's a threat of ongoing flooding over the ensuing days."
The center of Hurricane Debby made landfall over Florida's Big Bend coast, near Steinhatchee, around 7 a.m.
DeSantis emphasized safety, urging residents, "Now that Hurricane Debby is making landfall, the most important thing to do is to just protect yourself and protect your family. Don't go out into this storm. Don't drive on the roads, particularly when they're flooded." He noted, "We have had some traffic mishaps over the last 12 hours, and when you have flood situations, that is the number one way where we will see fatalities."
Despite power outages affecting around 143,000 Floridians, DeSantis assured, "We have a lot of restoration personnel ready to go to get it back on," and stated, "the total number of power outages are not going to reach the level that they did with Hurricane Idalia and certainly not the level that they did with Hurricane Ian back in 2022."
DeSantis highlighted the state's preparedness, mentioning that "17,000 linemen are ready to assist with restoring power immediately," and that "we also have Starlink Internet ready to deploy if that is needed." He confirmed, "Our National State Guard are ready for search, rescue, and humanitarian assistance as needed."
Regarding logistics and supplies, he said, "We've also have on hand for this storm statewide 11 million bottles of water, almost 3 million shelf-stable meals," and added that "we do not anticipate needing to put a major dent in that at this time."
He also addressed bridge and road safety, stating, "The Sunshine Skyway Bridge and the Howard Franklin Bridge have been temporarily closed due to high winds and will be reopened as quickly as possible once conditions improve."
DeSantis concluded with gratitude and a call for continued vigilance, saying, "I want to thank everybody who's been involved in the preparation efforts. There's gonna be a lot of water that's gonna be dumped throughout the state, and we're gonna see effects of that, not just today, but in the ensuing days. But we are prepared, we have the resources that we need, and those will be deployed as needed to help with the recovery and the response efforts."
tdishman@fbnewsleader.com