New Orleans, La. - Tropical Storm Debby's fierce winds give Florida's coastline a punch.
Although not a powerful hurricane, the storm is moving at a snail's pace dumping massive amounts of rain across Florida and forcing evacuations.
Some are dealing with tornadoes from the storm.
Florida is far from the clear with Debby predicted to continue causing problems for the next couple of days. Here at home, it's a sigh of relief.
"Luckily, I can only imagine if it had come our way, it would have been a serious problem here," says FOX 8 Chief Meteorologist Bob Breck.
Breck says Debby should serve as a reminder of how unpredictable a slow moving un-organized storm can be.
"It reminds us of these weak systems, like Allison, a number of years ago. The computer models don't accurately reflect where they are going far out. Sometimes they just don't have a clue and in this case, they didn't," says Breck.
With predictions all over the map, Governor Jindal declared a State of Emergency ahead of the storm and several parishes also took that stance.
In Plaquemines Parish, emergency crews put hesco baskets on levees and along Highway 23.
In Grand Isle, a voluntary evacuation was ordered and then eventually lifted, but Mayor David Camardelle says it was a chance he wasn't willing to take.
"It keeps you on pins and needles and I hate that kind of storm. It reminded me of Hurricane Juan years ago. I know with a major storm, we've got three days to get out but this storm played around with the island. It was tense," says Camardelle.
Debby is the 4th named storm of the season and it's the first time four tropical storms have been recorded before July 1st during the Atlantic Hurricane Season.
"We knew two weeks before that we would get into a very active cycle. There are certain things that happen around the planet that create conditions that are either favorable or not for tropical development and we happen to get into this pattern early on," says Breck.
Bob Breck says that's good because the storms early in the season usually aren't that strong and the water temperatures aren't very hot.
He says it doesn't mean the rest of the season will be bad either.
For the past couple of seasons, we've been in the La Nina pattern which has allowed for more storms, El Nino will soon come into play.
"El Nino just creates stronger winds over the tropics and wind are shear which usually they don't allows the storms to get better organized and not that they fully shut down the tropical season but what it usually means is we won't see that many storms once the El Nino kicks in," says Breck
El Nino could kick in later in the summer.
For now, though, Debby seems to be Florida's problem, soaking the Sunshine State.
Hesco baskets placed in
