Florida Keys, Florida - Tropical Storm Debby landed in Florida on Monday bringing high winds, pouring rain – and 25 tightly wrapped packages of cocaine worth more than $1 million.

Debby, which hit the state's northern Big Bend region as a Category One hurricane but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, washed the trove of drugs ashore along Florida's southernmost tip.

"Hurricane Debby blew 25 packages of cocaine (70 lbs.) onto a beach in the Florida Keys," US Border Patrol acting chief patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II wrote on X.

The load of drugs, which Briggs reported was valued at more than $1 million, was discovered by a good Samaritan who contacted the authorities.

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In July 2023, the mayor of Tampa, Florida similarly discovered 70 pounds of cocaine that had been washed ashore in the Florida Keys, while enjoying a vacation day.

In addition to bringing cocaine, Debby has killed at least four people, knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people, and could produce more life-threatening storm surges as well as catastrophic flooding.

The Keys, a string of islands stretching off the state's southern tip, are located in close proximity to a number of Caribbean countries that serve as a transit hub for cocaine being trafficked from South America to Europe and North America, including into Florida.

The storm will probably cause catastrophic flooding with "potentially historic heavy rainfall" when Debby moves northeast across Georgia and South Carolina over the next few days, the National Hurricane Center said.

Debby is expected to dump up to 18 inches of rainfall in parts of Florida, and as much as 30 inches in coastal Georgia, South Carolina, and parts of North Carolina before the week is over.

The governors of Georgia and South Carolina have declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm's arrival. President Joe Biden on Sunday approved an emergency declaration for Florida, allowing federal aid to be expedited.