As Tropical Storm Debby barrels toward Florida , a death investigation into the electrocution death of a woman from Lake Helen is underway after she was reportedly electrocuted to death during a nasty bout of bad weather on Friday evening.
Deputies with the Volusia Sheriff's Office in Volusia County, Florida — Lake Helen, where the woman was from, is 35 miles north of Orlando — told Fox 13 that the woman, 39, and her husband had been working in their barn during heavy rains when the electrocution happened.
Her husband told the authorities that he heard her scream, then found her holding onto a metal drum as she was electrocuted. He reportedly kicked the fan touching the drum away from it, then performed life-saving measures until EMS arrived, but the woman later died at the hospital.
READ MORE: Hurricane watch issued for parts of Florida as Gulf Coast braces for Tropical Storm Debby
READ MORE: Baby found on highway was 'saved' by Hurricane Beryl as boy would not have survived usual summer heat
Puddles of water in the barn that a power cable to the fan was running through may have been to blame, investigators determined, as the fan's cable was described as tattered and worn. A medical examiner is slated to perform an autopsy to determine an official cause of death for the woman, who has not been identified.
The electrocution comes amid the quick approach of Tropical Storm Debby, which is rapidly strengthening and could become a hurricane as it officially makes landfall in Florida after traversing the Gulf of Mexico, bringing with it the threat of floods to not only Florida but much of the East Coast later in the week.
Debby is expected to become at least a Category 1 storm by Monday, when it's slated to make landfall in Florida's Big Bend region, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Click here to follow the Mirror US on Google News to stay up to date with all the latest news, sports and entertainment stories.
After that, the storm will move eastward over Florida before stalling over some coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina. It's expected to be a "historic rainfall event" with "potentially catastrophic flooding" that could severely damage the region, beginning as early as Tuesday and lasting through Friday, Dwight Koehn, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Charleston, South Carolina, told The Associated Press.
The impact of the floods was expected to be the worst in the low-lying areas near the coast, which include Savannah, Georgia, and Hilton Head and Charleston, South Carolina, Koehn said.
In an update posted at 11 a.m. on Sunday, the hurricane center said Debby was located just 130 miles west-southwest of Tampa, Florida, and about 160 miles south-southwest of Cedar Key, Florida. It was moving north-northwest at about 13 mph with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.
"We are going to see flooding events," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a Sunday morning briefing. "There is also going to be power outages." He added that flood control devices were being constructed and placed at utility stations throughout the region to minimize the risk of power interruptions as a result of flooding — the first time Florida has done such preparations ahead of a hurricane.
What led to the 39-year-old woman's electrocution death, however, may have been the wind and thunderstorms battering a broad area of the Florida Keys and the Bahamas, some of which have also been battering northern regions of the state.
Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, coming after Tropical Storm Alberto, Hurricane Beryl and Tropical Storm Chris, which all formed in June.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted that the system carrying Debby will strengthen as it curves off the southwestern Florida coast, where the water has been described as extremely warm. A hurricane warning was issued for many parts of the Big Bend and Florida's Panhandle, and tropical storm warnings were in place along Florida's West Coast as well as the southern Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas. Another one was extended farther west into the Panhandle.
The warnings indicate that storm conditions are expected within the next 36 hours, while a watch means they're possible within 48 hours. About 6 to 12 inches of rain — up to 18 inches in isolated areas — are possible form the storm, which ould create "locally considerable" flash and urban flooding. Moderate flooding is also possible along some of the rivers on Florida's West Coast, forecasters warned.
A storm surge is also expected to hit the Gulf Coast, including Tampa Bay, reaching between 2 and 4 feet and 7 feet in some northern areas. Forecasters are calling it "a danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation" in a region including Hernando Beach, Crystal River, Steinhatchee and Cedar Key as well as Citrus and Levy counties, which ordered a mandatory evacuation for their coastal areas.
Floridians in Hernando, Manatee, Pasco and Taylor counties are under voluntary evacuations. Shelters have opened in those and a few other counties for those displaced by the storm.
A state of emergency was declared in 61 of Florida's 67 counties, and the National Guard activated 3,000 of its members, according to a declaration from DeSantis. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp made his own emergency proclamation on Saturday.
The White House said both federal and Florida officials were in touch, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was "pre-positioned" with resources including food and water.
Most Popular
Comments / 0