People are seen next to an uprooted tree in Harrisburg following the storms caused by Tropical Storm Debby on Friday. Patriot News photo by Sean Simmers via AP
PHILADELPHIA — The weather system previously known as Hurricane Debby had not yet completely left parts of the United States behind on Sunday: 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 on August 5, the storm spawned tornadoes and flooding on the East Coast for nearly a week, damaging homes and causing deaths before moving into Canada on Saturday.
Although many rivers had crested 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 soaked by Debby, the National Weather Service said localized rainfall could lead to more flash flooding in coastal regions of the Carolinas.
Authorities in Lumberton, North Carolina, said in a Facebook post Saturday that a person had died after driving into floodwaters on a closed road and being swept away. Officials did not identify the driver but said what was hoped for as a rescue quickly turned into a recovery after the storm.
In New Bern, North Carolina, business was good at the Halftime Pub and Grub restaurant Sunday afternoon, shortly after a flash flood warning was issued, waitress Chastity Bettis said.
“Right now it’s thundering, drizzling and pretty dark, so I’d say it’s going to start raining heavily here soon,” she said. “People who live here are used to hurricane season and conditions like this, but it’s been pretty heavy over the last week or two.”
In South Carolina, the Charleston office of the National Weather Service warned Sunday that up to 3 to 4 inches of additional rainfall was possible during the afternoon and evening, leading to flash flooding. Showers and thunderstorms could occur throughout Charleston County, 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 were still without power as of Sunday afternoon, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us. In hard-hit Ohio, where Debby-related storms, including tornadoes, swept through the northeast of the state on Wednesday, there were still about 23,000 outages.
Debby’s final day and night over the United States on Friday inundated parts of New York, Pennsylvania and New England with rain and flash flooding, requiring evacuations and rescue efforts.
Stacey Urban, whose family owns Moss Vanwie Farm in Canisteo, New York, said the floods destroyed about three-quarters of the 1,200-acre farm, including about 400 acres of corn, 200 acres of soybeans and hundreds more acres of hay used as feed for the cows and other animals.
“This is total devastation,” she said by phone on Sunday as firefighters cleared the house’s flooded basement. “We never thought something like this would happen.”
Urban said the family, which has operated the farm for about 37 years, has not yet had a chance to estimate the total damage, but said all 150 cows and 200 young animals are safe and all farm equipment has been recovered.
“Whether everything works is another matter,” she said. “The water came quickly.”
Reconstruction efforts continued in Steuben County in upstate New York, with authorities announcing plans to distribute water bottles and cleanup kits to residents affected by flash floods on Sunday and Monday.
The county, which borders Pennsylvania, declared a state of emergency on Friday and ordered the evacuation of several towns as floodwaters inundated homes, farms and roads. The area has been hit by devastating flash floods in previous storms, including in 2021.
Officials in Tioga County in north-central Pennsylvania said Sunday morning that 10 teams of volunteer rescue workers were out surveying residents for damage while emergency responders continued to search for a person missing since the flooding.
“Please be nice to them because these are volunteers… they work here at the 911 center, they’re in the fire department, they’re in the police department, they’re in the EMS, these people are sacrificing their Sunday to help you,” said County Commissioner Marc Rice.
Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center is tracking another possible tropical storm in the Atlantic. Officials said a tropical depression is likely to form within the next one to two days and could approach parts of the Greater Antilles by mid-week.
