First responders launched high-water and helicopter rescues of people trapped in cars and homes in rural New York and Pennsylvania as heavy rain from the remnants of Debby slammed the Northeast with intense flooding.
Debby was downgraded to a tropical depression late Thursday afternoon, and was a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. It made landfall early Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane. Then, Debby made a second landfall early Thursday in South Carolina as a tropical storm.
At least eight people died so far due to Debby, most in vehicle accidents or from fallen trees.
The worst of the flash flooding so far in New York occurred in villages and hamlets in a largely rural area south of the Finger Lakes, not far from the Pennsylvania border.
In Steuben County, which borders Pennsylvania, officials ordered the evacuation of the towns of Jasper, Woodhull and part of Addison, and said people were trapped as floodwaters made roads impassable.
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In the hamlet of Woodhull, a rain-swollen creek ran so ferociously that water overtopped a bridge. Area resident Stephanie Waters said parts of sheds, branches …
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In Canisteo, farm owners Cliff and Deb Moss suffered heavy damage to their dairy farm, which has been there for more than five decades. A neighbor’s double-wide trailer floated down a field to a river during the flooding, said their daughter, Stacey Urban.
Urban said the catastrophic damage to the community was still coming into focus, and was hard to fathom.
“They have lost a lot. Beyond heartbreaking,” said Urban.
John Anderson said he watched the floodwaters come up quickly, overwhelming some vehicles in Canisteo, in Steuben C …
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