A man walks through storm surge on the flooded road into Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Monday morning, after Hurricane Debby made landfall. Debby has since been downgraded to a tropical storm. The Associated Press
Three local firefighters and paramedics are deploying with Indiana Task Force 1 to assist in the response to Tropical Storm Debby.
IN-TF1, the state’s Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated urban search and rescue task force, was activated Sunday afternoon to deploy to South Carolina as a “Type 3 NIMS Mission Ready Package – Water” in support of operations due to now Tropical Storm Debby, which made landfall in Florida early Monday morning. A total of 45 personnel are being deployed, officials said in a news release.
Local first responders deploying are Keegan Sichting, a ground support specialist for the Bargersville Community Fire Department; Chelsea Spina, a medical specialist with the White River Township Fire Department; and Robert Stetcher, a rescue specialist with the Greenwood Fire Department. They left for South Carolina on Sunday evening.
A Type 3 deployment is a condensed version of a Type 1 deployment, which would be a full deployment of the entire task force. While IN-TF1 is only sending half of its group, they are sending the same amount of equipment they would with a full deployment, providing full rescue capabilities — hazmat, medical, K-9s and structural specialists, said Mike Pruitt, a task force spokesperson and Bargersville Fire deputy chief.
It is also always an option to upgrade Indiana’s deployment to a Type 1 if the situation warrants it in the future, Pruitt said.
Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on the Big Bend coast of Florida early Monday, bringing winds of 75 mph and the potential for catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge as it slowly passes over the northern part of the state. Storm surge was expected to be the biggest threat for Florida, with 6 to 10 feet of inundation above ground level predicted in part of the zone near the Big Bend, John Cangialosi, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, told the Associated Press.
At least two people have died from the storm’s impacts. A 13-year-old was killed when a tree fell on his home and the driver of a tractor-trailer died when his truck went over a guardrail and into a canal in Florida, The Weather Channel reported.
Forecasters have warned that the storm and its remnants could bring record-setting rain could pummel coastal Georgia and South Carolina as it heads east in the coming days. As of 11 a.m. Monday, Debby had been downgraded to a tropical storm with winds of 70 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Debby was expected to move eastward over northern Florida and then stall over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, thrashing the region with potential record-setting rains totaling up to 30 inches beginning Tuesday through Saturday morning. Flooding is expected to be especially severe in low-lying areas near the coast, including Savannah, Georgia; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina. Areas of South Carolina from the coast inland, including Charleston, were forecasted to have a 75% chance, or high risk, of flash flooding.
The hurricane will be the latest storm to wrack the Carolinas, as both North and South Carolina have dealt with three catastrophic floods from tropical systems in the past nine years, all causing more than $1 billion in damage, the Associated Press reported.
