Tropical Storm Debby moved menacingly into some of America’s most historic Southern cities and was expected to bring prolonged downpours and flooding throughout the day Tuesday after slamming into Florida and prompting the rescue of hundreds from flooded homes.
Record-setting rain from the storm killed at least five people Monday, four in Florida — including two children — and one in Georgia.
“Debby is expected to produce potentially historic rainfall totals of 10 to 20 inches, with maximum amounts of 30 inches, bringing areas of catastrophic flooding across portions of eastern Georgia, the coastal plain of South Carolina, and southeast North Carolina through Wednesday,” the National Hurricane Center said. “Across portions of central and northeast North Carolina, 6 to 12 inches of rainfall, with local amounts to 18 inches, are expected through Saturday morning. This rainfall will likely result in areas of considerable flash and urban flooding, with significant river flooding expected.”
NOAA / National Hurricane Center
“On the forecast track,” forecasters continued, “the center will move across southeastern Georgia this morning, and then off the Georgia coast later today and on Wednesday, and approach the South Carolina coast on Thursday. Some slight weakening is possible today. Some re-strengthening is possible on Wednesday and Thursday when Debby is off the southeastern U.S. coast.”
Tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 200 miles east of the center, the Miami-based hurricane center said.
Debby made landfall along the Gulf Coast of Florida early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane. It weakened to a tropical storm and was moving slowly, bringing drenching rain and severe flooding to many areas.
Racing to cope
Flash flood warnings were issued in Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, among other areas of coastal Georgia and South Carolina. Both Savannah and Charleston announced curfews Monday night into Tuesday.
In South Carolina, Charleston County Interim Emergency Director Ben Webster called Debby a “historic and potentially unprecedented event” three times in a 90-second briefing Monday.
Roughly 161,000 customers had no power early Tuesday in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, according to PowerOutage.us.
More than 1,600 flights were also canceled nationwide on Monday, many of them to and from Florida airports, according to FlightAware.com.
In addition to the curfew, the city of Charleston’s emergency plan includes sandbags for residents, opening parking garages so residents can park their cars above floodwaters and an online mapping system that shows which roads are closed due to flooding.
Debby a menace
In Edisto Beach, South Carolina, a tornado touched down Monday night, damaging trees, homes and taking down power lines, the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office said on social media. No injuries were immediately reported, officials said.
About 500 people were rescued Monday from flooded homes in Sarasota, Florida, a beach city popular with tourists, the Sarasota Police Department said in a social media post. Just north of Sarasota, officials in Manatee County said in a news release that 186 people were rescued from flood waters.
“Essentially we’ve had twice the amount of the rain that was predicted for us to have,” Sarasota County Fire Chief David Rathbun said on social media.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that the state could continue to see threats as waterways north of the border fill up and flow south.
“It is a very saturating, wet storm,” he said. “When they crest and the water that’s going to come down from Georgia, it’s just something that we’re going to be on alert for not just throughout today, but for the next week.”
Debby already deadly
Five people had died due to the storm as of Monday night, including a truck driver on Interstate 75 in the Tampa area after he lost control of his tractor trailer, which flipped over a concrete wall and dangled over the edge before the cab dropped into the water below. Sheriff’s office divers located the driver, a 64-year-old man from Mississippi, in the cab 40 feet below the surface, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
A 13-year-old boy died Monday morning after a tree fell on a mobile home southwest of Gainesville, Florida, according to the Levy County Sheriff’s Office. In Dixie County, just east of where the storm made landfall, a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy died in a car crash on wet roads Sunday night.
In southern Georgia, a 19-year-old man died Monday afternoon when a large tree fell onto a porch at a home in Moultrie.
Disasters declared
President Biden approved a request from South Carolina’s governor for an emergency declaration, following his earlier approval of a similar request from Florida. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he’s asked Mr. Biden to issue a preemptive federal emergency declaration to speed the flow of federal aid to his state.
Vice President Kamala Harris postponed a campaign stop scheduled for Thursday in Savannah.
North Carolina is also under a state of emergency after Gov. Roy Cooper declared it in an executive order he signed Monday. Several areas along the state’s coastline are prone to flooding, such as Wilmington and the Outer Banks, according to the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program.
North Carolina and South Carolina have dealt with three catastrophic floods from tropical systems in the past nine years, all causing more than $1 billion in damage.
In 2015, rainfall fed by moisture as Hurricane Joaquin passed well offshore caused massive flooding. In 2016, flooding from Hurricane Matthew caused 24 deaths in the two states and rivers set record crests. Those records were broken in 2018 with Hurricane Florence, which set rainfall records in both Carolinas, flooded many of the same places and was responsible for 42 deaths in North Carolina and nine in South Carolina.