Flash Flood in Collier County, Florida

Collier County emergency management reported that in Marco Island an estimated 50 to 70 vehicles were stranded due to flooded roadways and there was flood water intrusion in some low-lying buildings and coastal structures up to 6 inches deep. NWS survey and damage assessments by local officials indicated that flood inundation was mainly 1-2 feet from a mix of rainfall and storm surge.

The center of Debby passed about 140 miles west of Naples as a tropical storm moving north-northwest over the eastern Gulf of Mexico around 8 AM EDT on August 4th. Tropical Storm Debby intensified into a hurricane as it passed southwest of Tampa late August 4th before making landfall in the Florida Big Bend area as a Category 1 hurricane on the morning of August 5th, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and lowest central pressure of 979 mb. The outermost edge of Debby's tropical storm force wind field skirted the southwestern Florida Gulf coast on August 3rd and 4th. bringing brief tropical storm force wind gusts to most of the area. The most persistent rain bands moved over western, southern, and central sections of Collier County on August 4th, producing near-tropical storm conditions and rainfall of 4-6 inches. A storm surge of just over 3 feet, in combination with the high rainfall amounts, led to moderate coastal flooding in vulnerable storm surge locations in coastal Collier County during the high tide cycle on August 4th. The heavy rainfall also caused widespread minor to moderate inland flooding across the Naples and Golden Gate areas.

The combination of heavy rainfall and storm surge caused a total of $877,947 in damage in unincorporated sections of Collier County (excluding the cities of Marco Island, Everglades City, and Naples), with 6 properties suffering major damage and 31 with minor damage.