Tropical Storm Debby drenches Georgia, South Carolina with a foot of rain

Tropical Storm Debby drenched coastal cities in Georgia and South Carolina, stirred up tornadoes and submerged streets with waist-high floodwaters on Tuesday, just the beginning of a prolonged storm that could dump staggering rain totals of up to 25 inches.

Charleston and Savannah, Georgia, took the first blow, with up to a foot of rain falling in just over 24 hours. Police blocked all roads into Charleston’s downtown peninsula to everyone but essential workers and emergency personnel. Dozens of roads were closed in the historic city because of flooding similar to what it sees several times a year because of rising sea levels.

As Debby swirls just offshore, the heavy rain is expected to move north into parts of South and North Carolina that have already seen two billion-dollar floods in eight years.

Michael Jones said water gushed into his home Monday evening, overturning the refrigerator and causing furniture to float. Outside, the water seemed to be everywhere and was too deep to flee safely. So Jones spent a sleepless night on his kitchen table before firefighters going door to door came in a boat Tuesday morning.

It will be a nervous few days for northern South Carolina and southern North Carolina, where forecasters warned of up to 15 inches of rain. Those totals are close to what the region saw in a historic flood from Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Two years later, many of those records were broken during Hurricane Florence. Both storms killed dozens.

Several areas along North Carolina’s coastline are prone to flooding, such as Wilmington and the Outer Banks. Virginia could see impacts including strong winds, heavy rains and flooding.

North Carolina and Virginia have both declared a state of emergency.

Debby’s center was about 30 miles southeast of Savannah on Tuesday night, according to a bulletin from the National Hurricane Center. It had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was heading east-northeast at 3 mph.

The storm was forecast to slowly move out to sea, then creep back onshore over South Carolina on Thursday morning.




(AP Photo Stephen B. Morton)