Hurricane Debby takes aim at Florida's Gulf Coast, expected to slog up East Coast

Aug 5 (Reuters) - Hurricane Debby is expected to slam into the Big Bend region of Florida's Gulf Coast by midday on Monday before slowly crossing the state, causing potentially dangerous storm surges and catastrophic flooding, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

By 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT) on Sunday, the hurricane had sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), growing from a slow moving tropical storm that gained strength from warm Gulf waters. It will likely just get stronger.

The hurricane center forecast life-threatening conditions, including storm surges up to 10 feet (3 meters) in some areas.

As it slowly moved north, the storm could bring "potentially historic rainfall" of between 10 and 20 inches (25 and 50 cm) and catastrophic flooding to Georgia and South Carolina, it said. Local areas could receive 30 inches of rain by Friday morning.

"This is going to be the story of this storm," said Jamie Rhome, the deputy director of the hurricane center. "It's slow motion is going to dump historic amounts of rainfall - potentially over 20 inches. You're talking about catastrophic flooding."

The storm bears some of the hallmarks of Hurricane Harvey, which hit Corpus Christi, Texas, in August 2017. While downgraded into a tropical storm as it moved inland, it lingered over the state, dumping about 50 inches of rain on Houston.

Harvey is rated as one of the wettest storms in U.S. history, causing more than 100 death...
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