LUCAMA, N.C. (AP) — The remnants of Debby picked up the pace Friday, moving north and northeast from the Carolinas and still packing a punch with heavy rains, flash flooding and the threat of tornadoes.
The mid-Atlantic states and parts of New York and New England will see significant rainfall that could cause dangerous flooding into the weekend, said Jon Porter, Accuweather’s chief meteorologist. A tornado watch was in effect until Friday afternoon in parts of Virginia, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
“There will be multiple threats in Debby’s final chapter, and it’s a dangerous one,” Porter said.
The already drenched parts of northern Vermont that were hit by flash flooding twice last month were bracing for the possibility of more on Friday. Flooding that hit the northeastern part of the state on July 30 knocked out bridges, destroyed and damaged homes, and washed away roads in the rural town of Lyndon. It came three weeks after deadly flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. President Joe Biden approved Vermont’s emergency declaration.
Debby was a post-tropical cyclone after striking Florida early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane and then making a second landfall early Thursday in South Carolina as a tropical storm. By 11 a.m. Friday, Debby was centered between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Albany, New York, moving northeast at a rapid 37 mph (59 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.
In the aftermath, waterways swollen by torrential rains threatened communities far behind the weather’s leading edge. Stormwater swamped parts of downtown Annapolis, Maryland, including parts of the U.S. Naval Academy campus.
And more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) south of Debby's center, flash flooding hit the South Carolina town of Moncks Corner, where one of Debby's early bands unleashed a tornado on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service reported up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) of fast-moving water on Friday in the community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Charleston, and across the surrounding Berkeley County, emergency crews made 33 high water rescues after r up to 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain fell overnight.
The flooding isolated the Cane Bay subdivision of thousands of houses where officials were asking residents to stay home until the water subsides and roads clear and can be checked. And dozens of roads across the area were closed by standing water, including eastbound Interstate 26 outside Charleston.
And first responders in Alamance County, North Carolina went door-to-door urging people in a neighborhood of about 30 houses to evacuate in the town of Haw River, where the National Weather Service said the river was expected to crest just over moderate flood stage Friday afternoon. The town is about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Raleigh.
At least eight people have died related to Debby. The latest was identified as Hilda Windsor Jones, a 78-year-old woman who was home alone when a tree fell during the storm Thursday night, splitting open her mobile home in the community of Browns Summit northeast of Greensboro, North Carolina, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said.
On Thursday alone, the tornadoes leveled homes, damaged a school and killed one person, as the tropical system dropped heavy rain and flooded communities across the Carolinas.
It only took 15 seconds for a tornado to devastate Genesis Cooper’s home in Lucama, North Carolina, a small town about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Raleigh. He almost slept through it — if not for an alert on his wife’s phone.
He, his wife and their 20-year-old son huddled in a bathroom with blankets. They felt vibrations and heard glass shattering before hearing a sudden boom.
“I can’t even describe it. It’s like, suction, that’s what it felt like,” Cooper said. “Like something is squeezing, like your ears are popping.”
The nearby Springfield Middle School lost sections of its walls and roof, exposing some classrooms. One wall crumbled onto a soggy green lawn strewn with twisted pieces of metal roof and shredded insulation.
Meanwhile, a dam broke north of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Thursday morning as Debby drenched the area. Between 12 and 15 homes were evacuated, but no one was injured and no structures were damaged, Harnett County spokesperson Desiree Patrick said.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday that the state had activated more National Guard troops and vehicles to help rescue people in floods.
Townspeople in Bladenboro, North Carolina had helped fill sandbags before up to 3 feet of floodwaters flowed into the downtown area early Thursday. Deputies posted photos of a patrol car damaged by a fallen tree, as well as roads that had been washed out.
Forrest Lennon, the owner of Diamond Dave’s Grill in Bladenboro, was counting his blessings even though 5 inches (13 centimeters) of floodwater covered the floors of the restaurant he and his wife have owned since September. The previous owner said 3 feet of water inundated the building during the last two serious hurricanes, Matthew and Florence.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Lennon said, adding that they did everything they could to prepare.
As much as 6 more inches (15 centimeters) of rain could fall from the Carolinas through parts of Maryland, upstate New York and Vermont by the end of the weekend, the weather service said.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster warned Thursday that Debby's effects weren't completely over as rain-swollen rivers carry floodwaters downstream.
“We’ve passed some dangers, but there’s still plenty,” McMaster said. “So don’t let your guard down yet.”
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Associated Press contributors include Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and freelance photographer Mic Smith in Isle of Palms, South Carolina.
Makiya Seminera, John Minchillo And Allen G. Breed, The Associated Press
