As Tropical Storm Debby continued its dayslong crawl through the Southeast on Tuesday, coastal areas from northern Florida to the Carolinas were inundated with rainfall, leaving streets underwater as officials ordered evacuations, conducted rescues and warned of a dam that was near failure.
Forecasters say the conditions were only expected to worsen this week as the storm unleashes historic and potentially “catastrophic” flooding across the region.
Debby could dump 10-20 inches of rainfall through Friday, and some isolated areas could receive up to 25 inches, the National Weather Service said. By the middle of the week, bands of heavy rain will move northward from North Carolina to the Mid-Atlantic, the weather service warned: “Action should be taken to prep for impacts from high water.”
Debby is moving east-northeast at a mere 3 mph, according to the latest National Hurricane Center advisory, which allows it to soak everything on a path that’s expected to continue up to the New England states late this week. By the time it’s done, Debby may be the wettest landfalling hurricane ever.
“Debby has been meandering at a snail’s pace, but it will blast to the Northeast like a rocket later this week,” AccuWeather meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.
Debby tracker:Tropical Storm could bring ‘catastrophic’ rainfall to Southeast
Developments:
∎ Officials in Suwannee County, in northern Florida, are urgently warning residents to evacuate ahead of rivers expected to flood in the region. “Residents in river areas should make a decision to evacuate now,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
∎ Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency even though the impacts of the storm are not expected until late Thursday or early Friday, an indication of how much damage Debby could cause. “There is the potential for strong winds, heavy rains, and possible flooding across regions of the Commonwealth,” Youngkin said.
∎ Tornado watches were in effect across parts of the Carolinas, including the cities of Wilmington and Florence, according to the National Weather Service.
∎ Millions across Georgia and the Carolinas were under flash flood warnings and watches that will remain active into the latter half of the week, the weather service said.
∎Charleston Mayor William Cogswell said Tuesday that the city will extend its curfew until at least Wednesday morning.
In Georgia and SC, a month’s rain in a day
From North Florida to the Carolinas, local and state officials reported widespread flooding Tuesday as Debby dumped a foot of rain in some areas. Cities including Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, established curfews, ordered evacuations, closed office buildings, opened shelters and urged residents to stay indoors during the multi-day deluge.
Within the last 24 hours, parts of Georgia and South Carolina received more than a month’s worth of rain, according to the National Weather Service. The storm has trapped people in their vehicles and damaged homes as winds uproot trees and knock over utility poles. On Monday night, at least three suspected tornadoes caused damage throughout southeastern areas of South Carolina.
Debby made landfall on Monday along the Big Bend coast of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane and moved across the northeast region of the peninsula, turning streets into rivers, causing widespread power outages and contributing to at least five deaths. Hundreds were evacuated from coastal communities as the storm surge pushed several feet of water inland, overtaking cars and triggering water rescues.
Dam in South Carolina has ‘potential to fail’; officials order evacuations
Local officials in Colleton County, South Carolina, warned that a dam “has the potential to fail” and began evacuating residents in the area.
The warning about the vulnerable McGrady Dam, about 7 miles southwest of Walterboro, was issued by the Colleton Fire Department at 8 a.m. The National Weather Service, citing Colleton County Emergency officials, said water was overtopping the dam and that the structure “could fail at any time.”
“An evacuation notice has been sent to residents downstream of the dam,” the weather service wrote. “If the dam fails, flash flooding will occur.”
Much of Colleton County and the surrounding area has been soaked by as much as a foot of rain, and more was expected Tuesday. Flash flood warnings and other related advisories were widespread across South Carolina.
You thought Harvey was wet? Debby may double rain total
Hurricane Harvey will long be remembered as the monster rainmaker that overwhelmed Houston in 2017, at one point pouring more than 40 inches of rain over less than two days in some areas of Southeast Texas.
Debby could end up being wetter, maybe even twice as much.
Though it lost hurricane status a mere three hours after making landfall early Monday in northwest Florida, now-Tropical Storm Debby continues to cause major damage by unloading copious amounts of rain in the Southeast U.S., and it’s not projected to be done until drenching eastern states all the way up to New England late this week.
By that point, Debby may have dropped upwards of 50 trillion gallons of rain from Florida to Maine, the most ever by a hurricane that made landfall, meteorologist Ryan Maue said. By comparison, Harvey delivered more than 27 trillion gallons of rain to Texas.
Power outages abound in the Southeast
As Tropical Storm Debby’s impacts stretch northward, power outages have been adding up in Georgia and South Carolina while authorities work to restore power across north Florida.
Nearly 80,000 homes and businesses in Florida were still without power Tuesday afternoon, according to Poweroutage.us. The blackouts were concentrated in the Big Bend region, where the storm came ashore as a hurricane at 7 a.m. Monday before crossing the state and into Georgia.
Along with outages in Florida, about 7,000 utility customers were without power in Georgia and 6,000 in South Carolina. Officials in the states have assured residents that appropriate resources were staged to immediately begin restoring power when the storm clears.
Experts downgrade hurricane forecast − slightly
A rare bit of good news: Top meteorologists from Colorado State University on Tuesday reduced the number of storms expected this Atlantic hurricane season, from 25 to 23.
All other numbers remained the same from the team’s July forecast, including the predicted number of major hurricanes, six. (A major hurricane, defined as a Category 3 or higher, has sustained winds of at least 111 mph.)
The downgrade in the number of predicted named storms was because of the weeks-long lull in storm activity in July. “We anticipate a well above-average probability for major hurricane landfalls along the continental United States coastline and in the Caribbean,” CSU said.
Tropical Storm Debby’s rainfall totals so far
More than a foot of rain has fallen in parts of South Carolina, while rainfall totals in Georgia reached over 10 inches, according to rainfall reports from the National Weather Service office in Charleston, South Carolina. Below are some of the highest totals recorded so far.
Florida:
- Ruskin: 21.7 inches
- Palm Harbor: 20.34 inches
- Parrish: 18.86 inches
- Sarasota: 17.78 inches
- Pinellas Park: 14.04 inches
Georgia:
- Rincon: 11.09 inches
- Blitchton: 10.46 inches
- Springfield: 10.38 inches
- Port Wentworth: 9.28 inches
- Savannah: 8.50 inches
South Carolina:
- Green Pond: 14.02 inches
- Edisto Beach: 12.42 inches
- Beaufort: 11.16 inches
- Bennetts Point: 11.10 inches
- Charleston: 11.00 inches
Storm traps South Carolina family in leaking house as roof caves in
A deluge of rain from the storm trapped Beatriz Wheeler and her three children in her home in Hampton, South Carolina, around 80 miles west of Charleston, as water poured through holes in the walls and parts of the ceiling collapsed.
The rain started on Monday at around 4 p.m., Wheeler said. By Tuesday morning, the situation was dire – her roof had sprouted at least seven leaks. “Parts of our ceiling are caving in,” she said. “We’re managing, but there’s a lot of damage.”
Wheeler’s husband, who barely reached the bank where he works amid the heavy rains Tuesday morning, couldn’t return after both sides of their street flooded. “We’re currently discussing how he’s going to get home,” said Wheeler, 28.
Meanwhile, her parents faced imminent evacuation after a dam near their home in Walterboro, a town around 30 miles away, was at risk of failure. “If they’re forced to evacuate, they’ll probably try to come this way to bunker down with us,” she said.
Tropical Storm Debby death toll rises to 5
Officials have reported at least five deaths in connection with Debby since Sunday evening.
In the southern Georgia city of Moultrie, a tree fell onto a home, killing a 19-year-old, Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday.
Near Tampa, a man driving a semi-truck was killed after he lost control on an interstate that had been soaked in the rain, according to National Weather Service reports.
In Fanning Springs, about 35 miles east from where Debby made landfall, a 13-year-old boy was killed by a fallen tree that landed on a mobile home.
On Sunday night, as Debby’s outer bands were lashing much of the Florida Peninsula, a woman and a 12-year-old boy died in a single-vehicle crash in Dixie County, near where the storm eventually came ashore. A 14-year-old boy, who was in the vehicle when it crashed, was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries.
Several Florida waterways at major flood level
The Manatee River at the Rye Bridge in southwest Florida broke a record Monday, hitting a level of 20.12 feet, surpassing the previous mark of 20 feet set on July 21, 1962.
Manatee County opened a dam to release water from Lake Manatee to try to “maintain appropriate water levels” and they began dropping but remained at major flood stage.
That’s one of at least 10 locations in Florida where waterways are at or above major flood levels, which are also reported in three rivers west of Savannah.
Flooding in Cedar Key, but less damage than Idalia caused
As the storm passed over Cedar Key, an island town off Florida’s Gulf Coast, it partially blew the roof off Michael Presley Bobbitt’s clam dock and damaged a nearby boat “pretty significantly,” Bobbitt said.
Bobbitt, a clam farmer known locally as “the clambassador,” said the storm also flooded Cedar Key’s downtown with shin-deep water and ripped the roof off a local restaurant. Still, the damage was far less than what Hurricane Idalia caused last year.
“While some of our businesses were inundated and a few houses were, overall, the damage is pretty moderate to minor,” he said.
By Tuesday, businesses were open as usual, Bobbitt said. “The whole island is out today,” he said. “We’re all out working, helping our neighbors, putting it back together.”
Where is Tropical Storm Debby?
Tropical Storm Debby was located 10 miles east of Savannah and 70 miles southwest of Charleston, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 p.m. ET update.
The storm is moving northeast at 3 mph, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 40 mph, the hurricane center said. Tropical-storm-force winds close to 40 mph extend outward up to 205 miles from the center of the storm.
Debby is projected to move offshore, where it will drift through Wednesday before making a second landfall over South Carolina on Thursday. Debby is forecast to strengthen as it moves north along the Atlantic coast, the hurricane center said.
At least 3 suspected tornadoes reported in South Carolina
There were at least three reported tornadoes in South Carolina on Monday night as the storm crawled northward, bringing a barrage of severe weather across the Southeast.
In Edisto Beach, 50 miles southwest of Charleston, a tornado touched down and caused “some property damage,” knocking down power poles and toppling trees, according to a post on X by the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office. No injuries were reported.
In Charleston County, dispatchers reported a tornado that caused damage to at least one house, according to National Weather Service reports.
In Berkeley County, emergency services reported a tornado near the town of Moncks Corner, about 30 miles north of Charleston. An Applebee’s restaurant was reportedly damaged and power poles were toppled, some onto cars, the weather service said.
What makes Debby such a treacherous storm?
Debby is a large and slow-moving storm, making the system particularly dangerous as record amounts of rain inundate many areas, especially along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina this week.
The storm’s center was forecast to move near Savannah on Tuesday night and drag along the South Carolina coast on Thursday night. “Multiple days of very, very heavy rainfall” are possible, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said.
The National Weather Service estimates rainfall totals could reach up to 25 inches or more in isolated locations along the coast through Friday. The weather service office in Charleston, South Carolina, warned of “potentially historic rainfall.”
Debby shows there’s more to a storm than wind scale
As Debby strengthened in the Gulf and drew closer to Florida, hurricane experts and scientists say it was a classic example of how the wind scale categories used to describe hurricanes can fall short of telling the whole story.
“This is another example of a storm where the primary impacts are going to be from water, rather than wind,” said James Franklin, a retired branch chief of the hurricane specialist unit at the National Hurricane Center.
Jennifer Collins, a professor in the Geosciences School at the University of South Florida, has studied how to better communicate all of a storm’s threats.
Looking at the forecasts for up to 25 inches of rain in isolated locations between Savannah and Charleston, Collins told USA TODAY she’s very concerned about the likelihood of “catastrophic flooding” and hopes people will look at all of the hurricane center’s forecast products. Read more here.
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