Tropical Storm Debby blamed for at least 4 deaths as heavy rain drenches East Coast

The death toll from Tropical Storm Debby increased to four by Monday afternoon.

In one case, a 13-year-old boy was crushed after a tree fell onto a mobile home in Levy County.

A 64-year-old truck driver died after losing control on Interstate 75 near Tampa. His truck cab left the road and fell into the water. Divers with the sheriff's office found his body in the cab after it sank.

And a car crash on wet roads killed two people in Dixie County: a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy. A 14-year-old boy who was a passenger in the car was also hospitalized.

Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane just after 7 a.m. near the northern Florida community of Steinhatchee. A couple of hours later, it was downgraded to a tropical storm — still producing 70 mph winds and heavy rain.

On Monday night a Tropical Storm Warning was in effect from St. Augustine, Florida to South Santee River, South Carolina.

A Tropical Storm Watch was in effect from North of South Santee River, South Carolina to Cape Fear, North Carolina.

12 million people on the East Coast were under flash flood warnings.

The center of the storm was forecast to move across southeastern Georgia on Monday night and Tuesday, move briefly offshore on Tuesday and Wednesday near South Carolina and then be over the state's shoreline again on Thursday.

Debby's fastest winds hovered around 45mph on Monday night. The storm was expected to continue weakening while it was over land.

Debby was forecast to drop 6 to 12 inches of rain on parts of central and northern Florida. Through Saturday, 10 to 20 inches could fall across "portions of southeast Georgia, the coastal plain of South Carolina and southeast North Carolina," with isolated maximums of as much as 30 inches. The National Hurricane Center called the totals "potentially historic" and said they were likely to drive catastrophic flooding.

National Hurricane Center

Tornadoes were possible over southeastern Georgia and coastal South Carolina through Tuesday as the storm moved over land.

Officials in Sarasota, Florida, where the storm has already struck, said the city had received twice the expected amount of rain, which was contributing to flooding.

In Savannah, Georgia, wind and rain were expected to get worse overnight. Officials announced a curfew to run from 10 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster have all issued states of emergency.

A White House official said President Joe Biden was briefed on response efforts for Debby on Monday morning and said the administration will remain in contact with officials from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Upon the president's approval of Florida's disaster declaration on Saturday, rescue personnel, meals and water were deployed.

"We urge residents to remain cautious and listen to state and local officials," said the White House official.

At a press conference Monday morning, DeSantis said the Florida Department of Transportation has been clearing roads and shoulders for the last few days. Cut-and-toss efforts to clear roadways will begin as soon as the storm passes.

“I want to thank everybody who's been involved in the preparation efforts. We've got a lot of work ahead of us,” DeSantis said. There's going to be a lot of water that’s going to be dumped throughout the state and we're going to 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.”

The governor said the state has 11 million water bottles and almost 3 million shelf-stable meals for residents as needed, but he doesn’t anticipate putting a major dent in that stash with this storm.

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More than 100,000 customers were without power in Florida as of Monday evening, according to PowerOutage.us .

Nearly 17,000 linemen have been working to restore power, the governor said.

DeSantis issued a word of caution to residents wanting to use their power generators.

“Although we haven't had major power outages compared to some of the past storms, if you are without power and you want to use a generator, please do not use the generator inside your home,” DeSantis said.

“Make sure you're operating [your generator] at 20 feet away from the home. We don't want to see anybody get killed based on the carbon monoxide that will build up when those are run inside people's homes,” he added.