Debby's expected impacts after making landfall in Florida
AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva explains the long-term impacts of Hurricane Debby as it slowly tracks north across the Southeast U.S. after making landfall in Florida on Aug. 5.
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00:00Behind us is all the important exclusive active weather eyepath for Debbie where it makes landfall so important where it goes the next couple of days
00:07Equally as and oftentimes when we're talking about landfall, we're talking about the end of the storm
00:13but this is only the beginning unfortunately a
00:16Slow track word nor a track northward and while it will lose wind and intensity and become a tropical storm
00:23It's still going to have a lot of water and unfortunately
00:25We're looking at the possibility of catastrophic flooding along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, right?
00:31We want to get a closer look here outside as we go into Perry, Florida
00:35now
00:35Another camera that we've been keeping close eyes on for a lot of the wind and the rain and the occasional car that drives on
00:42By Bernie has a closer look at the storm on radar
00:45Yeah
00:46In fact joining me right now is a cue of the lead hurricane expert Alex da Silva and Alex a landfall
00:52Went right where we thought it would
00:54Along the Big Bend of Florida. We had that landfall this morning at 7 a.m
00:58You were here when Debbie made landfall category 1 hurricane near Steen Hatchie. Yeah, and I'll tell you this
01:04I think we got very very lucky here Bernie because I think if this thing had a little bit more time over the ocean just
01:10Maybe six more hours. I think Debbie could have easily been a category 2
01:14Maybe a category 3 hurricane before coming into Florida. All right, let's talk about this landfall
01:20Interesting statistic
01:22Since the year 2000 this is now the fourth storm that it has that has made landfall in, Florida
01:29Yeah, we usually look even later into the season look more into September for those landfalls to occur August
01:35You know the beginning of August. There's not usually a whole lot of activity. Usually you wait for the second half of August
01:40So again, very interesting stat here only the fourth one since 2000 the forward motion of Debbie has been
01:48Slowing down progressively over the last 24 hours and you expect that to continue
01:53I certainly do right now
01:55It's being dragged to the northeast right now by a dip in the jet stream over the Ohio Valley
01:59But what's going to happen is that dip in the jet stream is going to wave?
02:02Goodbye, it's going to leave it's going to lift out to the north and the storms essentially going to be left behind
02:07And so Debbie's going to be stalling somewhere off the Georgia or Carolina
02:11Coastline as the Bermuda high to the east pinches this thing a little bit further to the west
02:16So it might meander for a day or two or three down there really dumping all that rainfall down across the Carolinas
02:22Although it's been it was a much different track. There are similarities to storms
02:27Let's say like Florence that came into the Carolinas and stalled and started to move very slowly
02:33And we're afraid that that kind of a situation and we're convinced
02:37That's kind of a situation is going to occur early this week with with Debbie
02:43Yeah, these slow-moving systems can be a big big problem especially for the rain aspect of things
02:48But it's not only going to be the rain. I'm very concerned about coastal flooding coastal inundation
02:53We could see those those pictures across the the beaches of the Carolinas where the beach just drops off
02:58You know 10 feet straight down
02:59You know those kind of pictures are something that could be a reality after
03:03Debbie moves through because you're going to have this constant push these constant waves
03:07Battering the coastline for 24 48 72 hours
03:11Yeah
03:11Cities like Charleston cities like Savannah where inland but have the harbors they can get flooded and you'll notice that
03:18Extreme risk to lives and property due to that coastal inundation and also the heavy amounts of rain
03:27Catastrophic amounts of rain over the next couple of days Alex. Yeah, we could be talking about rainfall amounts of 20 to 30 plus inches
03:34Of rain I'm concerned about Savannah Charleston Myrtle Beach all these population centers can be under the gun for very very heavy rain
03:42And when you take a look at the Accuweather real impacts fail
03:45That's why even though this is going to be a tropical storm
03:48We're going with an Accuweather real impact scale of three
03:52Because of the flooding and also Alex the long-lasting nature of this rain
03:59Yeah, this is the thing that act sets Accuweather apart the Saffir-Simpson scale only takes into account the wind speeds
04:05But the wind speeds of this storm may not be all that strong
04:08But again, we're very concerned about the flooding aspect of thing water kills water is the deadliest factor in a hurricane
04:14Whether that be from storm surge or rainwater flooding
04:17So we really want people to pay close attention to this storm as it's going to be moving up the coast