UPDATE: Moultrie man dies in storm

Published 1:28 pm Tuesday, August 6, 2024

MOULTRIE — A 19-year-old man died Monday when a tree fell on his house during Tropical Storm Debby.

Derrien Bernard Razz had apparently stepped onto a porch at the side of the house, Colquitt County Coroner Verlyn Brock said on Tuesday morning. The pine tree hit the porch and caused minor damage to the rest of the residence, Brock said.

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Moultrie Police Chief Chad Castleberry said police were called to the residence at 621 13th Ave. S.W. at 2:58 p.m. Monday, where they found the fallen tree. Razz was pronounced deceased soon afterwards.

Brock said Razz had come to Moultrie from Florida, and family members were considering whether to return him there for funeral arrangements.

Razz was one of at least five deaths associated with the storm on Monday. A 13-year-old was similarly killed when a tree hit a mobile home in Levy County, Florida; a woman and a 12-year-old boy were killed in an automobile crash in Dixie County, Florida; and a truck driver died when his semi went off a bridge near Tampa.

The storm’s eye came ashore about 7 a.m. Monday near Steinhatchee, Fla., but its outer bands were already impacting South Georgia by that time. Debby was a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall, meteorologists said, but it was back down to a tropical storm by the time the center crossed from Florida to Georgia.

The U.S. Geologic Survey reports rainfall totals on its website, ga.water.usgs.gov/realtime/rainfall.php. Among the readings at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday:

— Ochlockonee River at Ga. 188 near Coolidge: 0.99 inches in the previous 24 hours, and 1.78 inches in the previous two days.

— Little River at Upper TyTy Road near Tifton: 1.23 inches and 1.86 inches, respectively.

— Little River near Adel: 1.12 inches and 2.12 inches.

— Little River at Ga. 122 near Hahira: 1.64 inches and 4.26 inches.

— Withlacoochee River at Skipper Bridge Road near Bemiss: 1.98 inches and 5.40 inches.

The weather station at Moultrie’s Spence Field, associated with georgiaweather.net, reported 2.15 inches of rain in the 24 hours ending at midnight Tuesday, and 0.31 inches of rain the day before.

The maximum wind speed at the Spence Field station was 43.5 miles per hour on Tuesday and 29.2 mph the day before.

The combination of rain and wind brought down a lot of trees, Emergency Management Director Justin Cox said, but it could have been a lot worse.

“Eastern shift has helped us,” Cox said by text Monday afternoon.

In all, four structures were damaged, Cox said on Tuesday. Two were hit by falling trees and two had their roofs blown off. The fatality in Moultrie was the only reported injury, he said.

Five roads were closed due to trees or power lines across them as of noon Tuesday, but later in the day the county announced all were reopened except Taylor Road.

By early Tuesday afternoon, Cox said Georgia Power had restored electricity to all of its Colquitt County customers and Colquitt EMC reported about 500 customers in the county that hadn’t been brought back online yet.

Both utilities serve other counties and suffered more damage in Lowndes County, nearer the center of the storm.

Pete Dillard, city manager for the City of Moultrie, said late Monday afternoon that 1,000 city utility customers had lost power in the storm but only about 40 remained without power at that time, and he expected them to be restored before midnight.

Colquitt County Schools, which held its first day of classes on Thursday, closed on Monday and Tuesday due to TS Debby, but the school system announced Tuesday afternoon that it would open on Wednesday morning.