Thousands of homes and Blake Prestonbusinesses were already with out power as Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida Monday morning.

Debby, which escalated from a tropical storm to hurricane late Sunday night, is set to pass over parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

The storm made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday at 7 a.m. near the coastal town of Steinhatchee, according to the National Hurricane Center. At the time of landfall, more than 200,000 outages were reported.

As of 7:25 a.m. ET, USA TODAY's power outage database showed 247,981 outages in the state.

Follow here for live updates:Hurricane Debby makes landfall along Florida coast

Map of Florida power outages

First Florida hurricane of 2024

It is the first hurricane to hit Florida in the 2024 hurricane season and is expected to bring around 30 inches of rain to the state.

The storm is also expected to bring life-threatening storm surges to Florida and major flooding to the southeastern part of the United States, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Contributing: James Powel, USA TODAY

Julia is a trending reporter for USA TODAY. She has covered various topics, from local businesses and government in her hometown, Miami, to tech and pop culture. You can connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on X, formerly Twitter, Instagram and TikTok: @juliamariegz