(AP) Hurricane Debby has claimed at least four lives in Florida and state officials warn that the threat from what was once a category 1 storm will continue for the next several days.

The deaths occurred in three separate incidents.

  • A 13-year-old boy died Monday morning after a tree fell on a mobile home in Fanning Springs and crushed the teen inside, according to the Levy County Sheriff’s Office.
  • A truck driver died early Monday on Interstate 75 in the Tampa area after he lost control of his tractor trailer, which flipped over a concrete wall and dangled over water before the cab dropped into the water below. Sheriff’s office divers located the 64-year-old man from New Albany, Mississippi, in the cab 40 feet below the surface, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
  • A 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy died late Sunday when the car she was driving on a wet road struck a median and then flipped off the road. The accident happened on U.S. 19 east of Steinhatchee. A 14-year-old boy who was a passenger was hospitalized with serious injuries, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The family was from Crawfordville, Florida.
Photo of a tree that fell onto a mobile home in Fanning Springs.
Deputies say the tree fell onto a mobile home in Fanning Springs, crushing and killing a 13-year-old boy. Courtesy: LCSO

No deaths or injuries (so far) in Florida county where Debby made landfall
Hurricane Debby made landfall Monday around 7 a.m. at Steinhatchee. Taylor County Sheriff Wayne Padgett says there are no deaths or injuries in the fishing village of fewer than 1,000 residents.

But the sheriff advised anyone who had evacuated from the low-lying area to wait before returning because the tide will be coming in and it’s unknown how deep the water might get. Several roads are closed due to flooding as well as trees and power lines downed by the storm, Padgett said.

Debby weakens to a tropical storm, but flooding threat continues
By Monday evening, Debby had weakened into a tropical storm. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was near the Florida-Georgia border and was moving slowly to the northeast.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that just because Tropical Storm Debby is moving toward Georgia, that doesn’t mean the state won’t continue to see threats as waterways north of the border fill up and flow south.

“It is a very saturating, wet storm,” DeSantis said during a briefing at the state’s emergency operations center. “When they crest and the water that’s going to come down from Georgia, it’s just something that we’re going to be on alert for not just throughout today, but for the next week.”

Hurricane Debby met Trenton, FL, with several inches of rain, causing cars to become abandoned due to flooding. Courtesy: Tammie lynn Rizer

Debby forces flight cancellations at Florida airports
More than 1,600 flights were canceled nationwide by midday Monday, many of them to and from Florida airports, according to FlightAware. One out of every five flights scheduled to leave Orlando International Airport was canceled Monday, with just as many incoming flights canceled there.

Nearly 30 percent of flights scheduled to depart Tampa International Airport on Monday were canceled. High numbers of canceled flights were also reported at airports in Jacksonville and Fort Myers.

Packages containing cocaine wash up on beach in Florida Keys during storm, Border Patrol says
In the Florida Keys, Debby blew packages containing 70 pounds of cocaine onto a beach, the U.S. Border Patrol’s Miami sector reported Monday.

A “good Samaritan” found the drugs and contacted authorities, the agency said. The cocaine has a street value of more than $1 million, the agency said on social media. It’s didn’t say exactly where the cocaine was found.