VALDOSTA — For Lowndes County, Debby was the hurricane that wasn’t.
For a storm that had been warned about as extensively as Debby was, its impact on Valdosta was minor, as the storm had been driven east of Lowndes County at the last minute, taking the worst of its heavy rainfall totals with it, a forecaster said Thursday.
Tropical Storm Debby became a Category 1 hurricane Aug. 4 before coming ashore near Steinhatchee in Florida’s Big Bend area. It brought with it 85 mph winds.
At first, National Weather Service forecasts put Debby on the same inbound track as Hurricane Idalia, a major Category 4 storm that barreled right across Lowndes County in August 2023, causing massive damage and power outages lasting a week or more.
“At the last minute, (Debby) turned more easterly, heading through the Jennings, Fla., area before reaching Homerville,” said Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk. “So Lowndes County had no injuries, no fatalities. We were blessed.”
Meghan Barwick, spokeswoman for Lowndes County, said there was no appreciable damage.
The sheriff said initial projections were for 16 inches of rain in the county; in fact, Lowndes County got about 6-7 inches, said Eric Bunker, a meteorologist for the weather service’s Tallahassee, Fla., office.
As Debby moved northward into the Carolinas it became a rainmaker, causing more difficulties. Bunker said Lowndes County residents shouldn’t worry about major flooding as a result of rain running off toward the Gulf of Mexico, since most rivers in the affected area actually empty into the Atlantic Ocean.
The only really measurable river flooding in Lowndes County is coming from the Withlacoochee River, with a rain gauge on Skipper Bridge Road showing the stream at 136.47 feet, about a foot and a half above flood stage and already dropping.
“It’s classified as minor flooding,” Bunker said. Langdale Park, located near the Withlacoochee, is also experiencing minor flooding.