Tropical Storm — Suwannee, Florida

2024-08-04 to 2024-08-05 · Suwannee, Florida

Event narrative

Suwannee was the most heavily impacted county in the NWS Jacksonville area as the eyewall of Debby crossed over the county through the day on 8/5. Widespread flash flooding occurred with water inundation into structures and swift water rescue deployments. Most of the City of Live Oak was flooded and the southern end of the county was inaccessible for some time after the storm. Most businesses in the city of

Live Oak were flooded and a major county road was completely washed out near the Community of Wellborn. U.S. Highway 90 was closed for about 36 hours. The Miami-Dade Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team was deployed to the southern end of the county with the initial push south and a large Incident Management Team (IMT) effort was set up in Live Oak. Extensive tree and structure damage was observed county-wide. Major main stem river flooding was occurring on both the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers. On 8/5 at 3:40 am local time, a wind gust of 40 mph was measured in Dowling Park and at 4:40 am the gusts were 41 mph. By 5:10 am, the gusts strengthened to 48 mph then 49 mph at 6 am. At 6:15 am on 8/5, the Suwannee Airport AWOS gust to 46 mph and at 6:20 am the mesonet in Dowling Park measured a gust of 53 mph. On 8/5 at 12:20 PM, a peak wind gust of 65 mph was observed at FAWN Suwannee Advent Christian Village WeatherSTEM site.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Debby made landfall as a Category 1 storm along the FL Big Bend coast during the early morning of August 5, 2024. Prior to landfall, outer convective bands produced tornadoes across portions of northeast Florida on August 4th. Widespread flooding moved inland with Debby across the Suwannee River Valley and inland Southeast Georgia where flash flooding and moderate to major river flooding occurred.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1198840. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.