Days of rain from Tropical Storm Debby forced the residents of a South Carolina community to begin the task of assessing damage left by a cyclone that was spinning over the Atlantic Ocean and influencing thunderstorms from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.
Gene Taylor waited Wednesday afternoon for a few inches of water to drain out of his house as high tide passed at his home along French Quarter Creek in Huger, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of Charleston.
Taylor saw the potential for flooding last week and started moving stuff out or up higher in his home. It’s a lesson learned the hard way. Taylor estimates this is the fourth time he has had floodwater in his home in the past nine years.
“To save everything, we’ve learned from the past it’s better be prepared for the worst. And unfortunately, I think we got it,” Taylor said.
A few doors down, Charles Granger was cleaning up after about 8 inches (20 centimeters) of water got into his home. He said it is an annoyance, but one he is trying to get used to.
“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 living on the creek.”
The National Hurricane Center warned that isolated areas could see up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain from Tropical Storm Debby.
For Georgia homeowners in suburban Pooler west of Savannah, the drenching came with a dose of déjà vu. In October 2016, rain from Hurricane Matthew overwhelmed a nearby canal and flooded several of the same homes.
Located roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the Atlantic Ocean, with no creeks or rivers nearby, the inland neighborhood doesn’t seem like a high-risk location for tropical flooding.
But residents say drainage problems have plagued their street for well over a decade, despite efforts by the local government to fix them.
Debby also rained on residents all the way up to the Great Lakes and New York and New Jersey. Moisture from the tropical storm strengthened another storm system Tuesday evening, which caused strong thunderstorms, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Kleebauer.
Up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of New Jersey in less than four hours.
Emergency officials warned of potential flash flooding, flying drones with loudspeakers in some New York City neighborhoods to tell people in basement apartments to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Multiple water rescues were reported in New York City and surrounding areas.
Nearly 330,000 customers remained without power in Ohio by Wednesday afternoon following severe storms there, according to PowerOutage.us.
‘Imminent failure’ of dam
Meanwhile, the “imminent failure” of a dam in southeast Georgia was threatening to swamp a mobile home park and other areas downstream, the National Weather Service said in a flash flood warning Wednesday afternoon. The Cypress Lake Dam is in Bulloch County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Savannah.
“If the dam breaks, flash flooding will occur immediately downstream of the dam,” the weather service said.
In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster said the state was just entering Act 2 of a three-act play.
“We’ve been lucky so far. Things have not been as bad as they could have been,” McMaster said of heavy rains that damaged over 60 homes but did not cause significant problems to roads or water systems.
Act 2 is overnight into Thursday when Debby moves back onshore and heavy rain returns, this time to the northern part of the coast and inland. An additional 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain could fall, said John Quagliariello, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Columbia.
“It may not be as catastrophic as what we were saying, but we still think as these rain bands develop they could sit over the same area for long periods of time, produce a lot of rainfall and a lot of flooding,” Quagliariello said.
Flooding possible next week
The final act may come next week if enough rain falls upstream in North Carolina to cause major flooding along rivers as it flows to the Atlantic Ocean.
The center of Debby was over the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday afternoon, 55 miles (89 kilometers) east-southeast of Charleston, the National Hurricane Center said. The tropical storm could make a second landfall in either North Carolina or South Carolina, expected late Wednesday or early Thursday. Debby first made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday along the Gulf Coast of Florida.
A state of emergency was in effect for both North Carolina and Virginia. Maryland issued a state of preparedness declaration.
At least six people have died due to the storm, five of them in traffic accidents or from fallen trees. The sixth death involved a man in Gulfport, Florida, whose body was recovered after his anchored sailboat partially sank.
