HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby has made its way into some of America’s most historic Southern cities and is forecasted to bring continuous rainfall and flooding throughout Tuesday after hitting Florida and leading to the rescue of hundreds from flooded homes.
Record-breaking rain from the storm, which claimed the lives of at least five individuals on Monday, has triggered flash flooding, with a potential of up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) in some areas, as stated by the National Hurricane Center.
“Hunker down,” Van Johnson, the mayor of Savannah, Georgia, advised residents in a live social media stream on Monday night. “Expect a challenging day ahead” on Tuesday, he added.
Flash flood alerts have been issued in Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, along with other coastal areas in Georgia and South Carolina. Both cities announced curfews for Monday night into Tuesday.
In South Carolina, Charleston County Interim Emergency Director Ben Webster referred to Debby as a “historic and possibly unprecedented event” three times in a 90-second briefing on Monday.
Aside from the curfew, Charleston’s emergency plan includes provisions for sandbags for residents, opening parking garages for vehicles to be parked above the flooded areas, and an online mapping system indicating road closures due to flooding.
In Edisto Beach, South Carolina, a tornado touched down on Monday night, causing damage to trees, homes, and power lines, according to the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office on social media. Fortunately, there were no immediate reports of injuries.
The National Weather Service continued issuing tornado warnings late into Monday night for various parts of the state, including the island town of Hilton Head.
Debby made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane. It has since weakened to a tropical storm and is moving slowly, causing widespread flooding across parts of eastern Georgia, the coastal plain of South Carolina, and southeast North Carolina through Wednesday.
About 500 people were rescued from flooded homes in Sarasota, Florida, a popular tourist city, on Monday, as reported by the Sarasota Police Department on social media. Similarly, officials in Manatee County stated in a news release that 186 individuals were rescued from flood waters just north of Sarasota.
“We have experienced twice the amount of predicted rainfall,” Sarasota County Fire Chief David Rathbun announced on social media.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cautioned that the state may face ongoing threats as waterways to the north fill up and flow southward.
“It’s a very wet and saturating storm,” he mentioned. “As the waterways crest and the water comes down from Georgia, we need to remain vigilant not only today but throughout the next week.”
By Monday night, five fatalities had been reported due to the storm, including a truck driver on Interstate 75 in the Tampa area who lost control of his tractor-trailer, which overturned and ended up dangling over the edge before the cab plunged into the water below. Divers from the sheriff’s office located the driver, a 64-year-old man from Mississippi, in the cab 40 feet (12 meters) below the surface, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
A 13-year-old boy passed away on Monday morning after a tree fell on a mobile home southwest of Gainesville, Florida, according to the Levy County Sheriff’s Office. Additionally, in Dixie County, just east of where the storm made landfall, a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy were killed in a car accident on wet roads on Sunday night.
In southern Georgia, a 19-year-old man lost his life on Monday afternoon when a large tree fell onto a porch at a residence in Moultrie, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As of Monday night, nearly 160,000 customers in Florida and Georgia were without power, a decrease from a peak of over 350,000, according to PowerOutage.us and Georgia Electric Membership Corp.
Moreover, over 1,600 flights were canceled nationwide on Monday, with a significant number of them related to Florida airports, according to FlightAware.com.
President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration request from South Carolina’s governor, following a similar approval for Florida. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also petitioned Biden to issue a preemptive federal emergency declaration to expedite the flow of federal assistance to the state.
Vice President Kamala Harris postponed a campaign stop planned for Thursday in Savannah.
North Carolina is currently under a state of emergency after Governor Roy Cooper declared it in an executive order signed on Monday. Various areas along the state’s coastline, such as Wilmington and the Outer Banks, are prone to flooding, as per the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program.
Both North Carolina and South Carolina have witnessed three catastrophic floods resulting from tropical systems in the past nine years, each causing over $1 billion in damages.
In 2015, extensive rainfall from Hurricane Joaquin caused severe flooding. In 2016, flooding from Hurricane Matthew led to 24 fatalities in the two states, setting record crests in rivers. These records were surpassed in 2018 by Hurricane Florence, which broke rainfall records in both Carolinas, flooding many of the same areas and resulting in 42 deaths in North Carolina and nine in South Carolina.
Martin reported from Atlanta. AP journalists Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida; Michael Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Darlene Superville and Will Weissert in Washington, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed to this report.
