By: Yuelan Yuan

Tropical storm Debby is expected to hit Florida on Monday, before moving on to Georgia and South Carolina, bringing strong winds and the potential for catastrophic flooding.

Debby rapidly turned into a hurricane on Sunday night, hours before it was expected to cause mass destruction over Florida’s Big Bend coast on Monday.

Officials everywhere in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are opening emergency shelters, equipped with survival kits, food and supplies, and are urging everyone in the storm’s path to leave as soon as possible because Debby was expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge.

Debby has brought several tropical storms all over the Gulf of Mexico and rapidly turned into a hurricane with winds as quick and powerful as 80 miles per hour that could wreck houses with ease.

Because of this, the governor of South Carolina declared a state of emergency for the potential storm and told all of the residents both in the storm’s path and even out of it to take warnings very seriously. Most houses in Florida even put sandbags on their doors to prevent houses from getting wrecked because of the storm.

This hurricane, Debby, is getting several people worried and even if the people evacuated the storm’s path and AOE (area of effect), they are still keeping an eye on storm updates and getting ready for the next time it may or may not strike.