This is a live blog. The 352today team will continue to post updates on the weather threat as it develops this weekend. Check back frequently.
OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Hurricane Debby is making her presence known across Florida. The category 1 hurricane’s bands are bringing torrential rain and high winds which are already causing damage as it makes landfall. The latest updates will be posted below:
Monday, 4:34 p.m. – Update on schools
The following schools have announced that they will be back in session on Tuesday, August 6:
- Alachua County Public Schools
- College of Central Florida
- University of Florida – including all student activities
Monday, 3:15 p.m. – Trees down, Power out
Hurricane Debby took out a lot of trees and with them power lines as the storm swept through North Central Florida. As of this update, there are 245,697 without power in Florida. Here’s the breakdown on outages in the 352:
Alachua County: 13,560
Citrus County: 2,455
Dixie County: 8,443
Gilchrist County: 5,596
Hernando County: 846
Lake County: 3,301
Levy County: 6,288
Marion County: 17,114
Sumter County: 1,930
It’s scenes like these that are causing the outages.
Ahead of the storm, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state had 17,000 linemen and hundreds of pieces of equipment staged and ready to work on restoring power as quickly as possible.
Earlier, power outages disrupted Lake County’s 911 call center. Service was restored around noon.
Monday, 11: 20 a.m. – Gainesville’s RTS running reduced service
The City of Gainesville says RTS is running reduced service on Monday with no campus routes and reduced frequency on all other routes. Fares are suspended throughout the day. For a list of other cancellations and closures check the 352today Hurricane Weather Center.
Monday, 11:15 a.m. – Marion County Utilities issues boil water notice
Marion County Utilities has issued a precautionary boil water notice to all customers in the Fore, Hillside, and Courtney Acres communities. The advisory is due to a loss of power at the water plant.
Impacted MCU customers are advised to bring water intended for consumption to a rapid boil for at least one minute until notice is lifted. As an alternative, bottled water may be used for these purposes, which include drinking, cooking, and brushing teeth. Water used for laundry, bathing, and/or showering does not need to be boiled.
Monday, 11:05 a.m. – Catastrophic flooding expected
National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan says we’re going to experience several days of rainfall from Hurricane Debby as the storm moves slowly inland – possibly as much as 20 inches in some places. He calls it a “very, very dangerous situation.” Watch the briefing here.
Monday, 10:20 a.m. – Power outages impact Lake County 911 center
Lake County has confirmed the 911 dispatch center is experiencing a power outage and that’s impacting the ability to receive calls from the community. They say they do not have an estimate for when the outage will be resolved. Lake County says if you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, please contact the county’s non-emergency number at 352-343-2101.
Monday, 9:30 a.m. – Dangerous road conditions
During the morning news briefing, Gov. Ron DeSantis warned residents in affected areas to sit tight until conditions are safe.
“When the water rises, when you have streets that can be flooded, that’s hazardous,” DeSantis said. “Don’t try to drive through this. We don’t want to see traffic fatalities adding up. Don’t tempt fate, don’t try to go through these flooded streets.”
There are many trees and power lines down. Even in areas that were minimally impacted, roads are wet and dangerous. One death in Dixie County is already being attributed to Debby’s impact.
We’re keeping a list of known road reports and can check those here. Check FL511, the state’s real-time traffic network, for updates on the interstates and highways.
Monday, 8:00 a.m. – Cedar Key streets flooded
As forecasted, storm surge is causing street flooding in the coastal community of Cedar Key. The town’s fire rescue department posted on social media just before 6 a.m. showing floodwaters rising along the streets. “Water is still coming in at a pretty heavy pace,” the post said.
Monday, 7:30 a.m. – Gov. DeSantis provides update on Hurricane Debby
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urges Floridians to not tempt fate and drive through flooded streets. The governor provided an update on Debby’s impact saying the storm was delivering a significant amount of rain as expected. You can watch the governor’s briefing from the state’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee.
Monday, 5:00 a.m. – The category 1 hurricane has left thousands without power
As of 5:00 a.m., the National Hurricane Center said Debby was very near making landfall in the Big Bend area. Sustained winds are 80 mph. Hurricane warnings are in effect from Yankeetown to Indian Pass. Meteorologists have forecast life-threatening storm surge along Florida’s Gulf Coast, with 6 to 10 feet of inundation expected Monday between the Ochlockonee and Suwannee rivers.
93.7 K-Country’s Mr. Bob encountered heavy rain on his way to work this morning and filed a brief report to show the conditions.
Meanwhile, 93.7 K-Country/352today’s Kathy Dugan had to reroute on her way to work Monday morning when her path was blocked by a downed tree on Fort King Street near Marion Technical Institute in Ocala. That tree took out power lines with it.
As of 4:37 a.m., more than 120,000 people are without power in Florida according to poweroutage.us. Here’s a look at the outages across North Central Florida at this time:
- Alachua County: 4,706
- Citrus County: 1,960
- Dixie County: 2,879
- Gilchrist County: 1,715
- Hernando County: 1,778
- Lake County: 280
- Levy County: 5,969
- Marion County: 12,685
- Sumter County: 1,659
If you need to report a power outage, we have the phone numbers for the utility providers in North Central Florida on the 352today Hurricane Weather Center.
If the power’s out, you can still get storm updates. Listen live on your cellphone to 93.7 K-Country or 92.5/95.5 Wind-FM.
The Associate Press contributed to this report.