HUGER, South Carolina (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby made its second landfall in South Carolina on its way to the East Coast, where residents as far north as Vermont could get several inches of rain this weekend.
The National Hurricane Center said Debby made landfall early Thursday morning near Bulls Bay, South Carolina. The storm is expected to continue moving inland, spreading heavy rain and possible flooding into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast by the weekend.
Debbie first landfall The hurricane reached Category 1 strength Monday morning on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It is now a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
Significant flooding is expected in parts of eastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina by Friday, with an additional 3 to 9 inches (8 to 23 centimeters) of rain expected, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Days of rain forced residents of a South Carolina community, already hardened by the deluge, to begin the near-ritual task of assessing the damage from Debby, which continued to spin over the Atlantic Ocean and influence storms from the East Coast to the Great Lakes on Wednesday. The National Weather Service office in Charleston also said survey teams had confirmed four tornadoes linked to Debby.
In Huger, about 15 miles northeast of Charleston, Gene Taylor waited in the afternoon for a few inches of water to flow away from his home along French Quarter Creek as high tide passed.
Taylor saw the flood risk last week and began moving his belongings outside or higher up in his home. It’s a lesson he’s learned the hard way: Taylor estimates this is the fourth time he’s had floodwaters in his home in the last nine years.
“To save everything, we’ve learned from the past that it’s better to prepare for the worst. And unfortunately, I think we got it,” Taylor said.
A few doors down, Charles Grainger was cleaning up after about eight inches of water had seeped into his house.
“A fall of eight inches disrupts your whole life,” Grainger said. “You don’t get used to it. You just grin and bear it. It’s part of life on the river.”
In Georgia, at least four dams were breached northwest of Savannah in Bulloch County, but no deaths were reported, authorities said in a briefing.
More than 75 people have been rescued from floodwaters in the county, said Corey Kemp, emergency management director, and about 100 roads have been closed.
“We’ve been faced with a lot of situations that we’ve never faced before,” said Roy Thompson, chairman of the Bulloch County Commission. “I’m over 78 years old and I’ve never seen anything like this before in Bulloch County. It’s unbelievable what’s happened and what’s going to continue to happen until all this water is removed from here.”
For residents of Tappan Zee Drive in suburban PoolerWest of Savannah, Georgia, the rain Debby brought was accompanied by a painful dose of déjà vu. In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew overflowed a nearby canal and flooded several the same houses.
Located about 50 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean, with no nearby streams or rivers, the neighborhood does not appear to be a high-risk area for tropical flooding. But residents say drainage problems have plagued their street for more than a decade, despite efforts by the local government to fix them.
Debby also dumped rain on communities as far as the Great Lakes, New York and New Jersey. Moisture from the tropical storm strengthened another system Tuesday night, which brought severe thunderstorms, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Kleebauer.
“We had a period of multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms that moved from Michigan eastward,” Kleebauer said.
In less than four hours, up to six inches of rain fell in parts of New Jersey.
New York City emergency officials have warned of possible flash flooding. flying drones with speakers In some neighborhoods, messages were sent out telling basement dwellers to be ready to flee at any moment. Several sea rescue operations were reported in and around the city.
Nearly 330,000 customers were still without power in Ohio Wednesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us, following severe storms, including two confirmed tornadoes. Officials with FirstEnergy’s Illuminating Company said via social media that power restoration would take several days due to the damage.
In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster said his state was entering the second act of a three-act play after more than 60 homes were damaged but roads and water systems had no major problems.
The final act could come next week if enough rain falls upstream in North Carolina to cause major flooding along rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean.
States of emergency were in effect in North Carolina and Virginia. Maryland issued a declaration of preparedness that coordinates preparations without declaring a state of emergency.
At least six people died from the storm, including five in car accidents and falling trees. The sixth death was a 48-year-old man from Gulfport, Florida, whose body was recovered after his anchored sailboat partially sank. ___ This story has been updated to remove an incorrect reference to rainfall totals for the Carolinas.
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Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Russ Bynum in Pooler, Georgia; Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed reporting.
