Debby’s aftermath leaves thousands in the dark; threatens more flooding in the Carolinas

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The weather system previously known as Hurricane Debby was not quite done with parts of the U.S. Sunday as flood warnings remained in effect in North Carolina and thousands were without power in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

After hitting Florida as a hurricane Aug. 5, the storm spent nearly a week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and taking lives along the East Coast before moving into Canada on Saturday.

While many rivers had receded by Sunday, flood warnings remained in effect across central and eastern North Carolina, where more thunderstorms were possible over the next few days. With the ground already saturated from Debby, the National Weather Service said localized downpours could result in additional flash flooding throughout the coastal Carolinas.

Authorities in Lumberton, N.C., said in a Facebook post Saturday that one person died after driving into floodwaters on a closed road and getting swept away. Officials didn’t identify the driver, but said that what they hoped would be a post-storm rescue, quickly turned into a recovery.

“It bears repeating,” the agency said in the post. “Never drive into flooded roadways and obey road closed signage.”

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In New Bern, North Carolina, business was brisk at the Halftime Pub and Grub restaurant Sunday afternoon just after a flash flood warning was issued, said server Chastity Bettis.

“Right now, it’s thundering, sprinkling and pretty dark so I’d say it’s going to start raining hard here pretty soon,” she said. “If you live here, you’re pretty used to hurricane season and it being like this, but the last week or two we’ve been getting it pretty rough.”

In South Carolina, the National Weather Service’s Charleston office warned Sunday that as much as 3 to 4 inches of additional rainfall was possible in the afternoon and evening, and could lead to flash flooding. Showers and thunderstorms could develop across Charleston County down through Chatham County and inland, the office said.

Even in drier areas, more than 35,000 homes and businesses in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont still had no electricity as of Sunday afternoon, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us. Some 23,000 outages lingered in hard-hit Ohio, where Debby-related storms including tornadoes blew through the northeastern part of the state on Wednesday.

Debby’s last day and night over the U.S. inundated parts of New York, Pennsylvania and New England with rain and flash flooding on Friday, prompting evacuations and rescues.

Stacey Urban, whose family owns the Moss Vanwie Farm in Canisteo, New York, said the floodwaters destroyed about three-fourths of the 1,200 acre farm, including about 400 acres of corn, 200 acres of soybeans and hundreds more acres of hay used to feed their cows and other animals.

“This is complete and total devastation,” she said by phone Sunday as fire department officials were bailing out the home’s flooded basement. “We never thought this would happen.”

Urban said the family, which has operated the farm about 37 years, hasn’t had a chance to take a full accounting of the damage but said all their 150 cows and 200 youngstock are safe and all farm equipment has been recovered.

“Whether it all works is another thing,” she said. “The water came in fast.”

Recovery efforts were ongoing in upstate New York’s Steuben County. Officials announced plans to distribute water bottles and clean-up kits to residents impacted by flash flooding on Sunday and Monday. The Red Cross also opened a shelter for flood victims at the Corning-Painted Post High School and planned to operate it until Monday.

The county, located along the Pennsylvania state line, declared a state of emergency Friday and ordered several towns evacuated as flood waters engulfed homes, farms and roadways. The area has been hit by devastating flash floods in prior storms, including in 2021.

“Twice in three years the Tuscarora Creek turned from a gentle stream into a raging beast,” county officials wrote in a post on the government’s Facebook page Sunday afternoon. “It’s just too much. The sun still rose Saturday. Volunteers fixed breakfast. People from all four towns rolled up their sleeves, took a deep breath.”

Officials in Tioga County in north-central Pennsylvania said Sunday morning that 10 teams of emergency service volunteers would be out surveying residents about damage as responders kept up the search for a person missing since the flooding.

“Please be kind to them, because these are volunteers … they work here in the 911 center, they’re fire, police, they’re EMS, these folks are dedicating their Sunday to help you out,” said County Commissioner Marc Rice.

Faith-based disaster relief organizations were also mobilizing to help assess damage and provide help, state Rep. Clint Owlett said. “That’s going to be a big deal.”

Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center is tracking another potential tropical storm in the Atlantic. Officials said a tropical depression is likely to form within the next day or two and could approach portions of the Greater Antilles by the middle of the week.

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Ramer reported from in Concord, New Hampshire. Philip Marcelo in New York also contributed to this report.