HUGE, SC — HUGER, SC (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby is expected to make landfall on the already humid South Carolina coast again Thursday morning, where winds will build and move north.
Significant flooding is expected through Friday in parts of eastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina, with another 3 to 9 inches (8 to 23 centimeters) of rain expected, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Debby, who first land attack Winds were slow across Florida Monday morning, but will increase in speed later Thursday and Friday, moving north and northeast across the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic.
Heavy rainfall is expected to cause flooding across parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States through Saturday morning.
Days of rain have forced deluge-hardened residents of a South Carolina community to begin the near-ritual task of assessing the damage left by Debby, which continued to churn over the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, affecting thunderstorms from the East Coast to the Great Lakes. The National Weather Service office in Charleston also said survey crews had confirmed four tornadoes linked to Debby.
In Huger, about 15 miles northeast of Charleston, Gene Taylor waited in the afternoon for a few inches of water to flow from his home along French Quarter Creek as high tide came in.
Taylor saw the potential for flooding last week and began moving belongings outside or higher up in his home. It’s a lesson he learned the hard way — Taylor estimates this is the fourth time he’s had floodwaters in his home in the past nine years.
“To save everything, we have learned from the past that it is better to be prepared for the worst. And unfortunately I think we have it,” Taylor said.
A few doors down, Charles Grainger was cleaning up after about eight inches of water entered his home.
“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.”
At least four dams have burst northwest of Savannah in Bulloch County in Georgia, but no deaths have been reported, authorities said at a news conference.
More than 75 people were rescued from floodwaters in the region and about 100 roads were closed, according to Emergency Management Director Corey Kemp.
“We’re faced with a lot of things that we’ve never faced before,” said Roy Thompson, chairman of the Bulloch County Commission. “I’m 78 and older and I’ve never seen anything like this in Bulloch County. It’s amazing what happened, and amazing what’s going to continue to happen until all this water is gone.”
For residents on Tappan Zee Drive in the suburb of PoolerWest of Savannah, Georgia, the soggy patch that Debby left behind came with a painful dose of déjà vu. In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew overflowed a nearby canal and flooded several the same houses.
The neighborhood is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, with no nearby creeks or rivers, and so wouldn’t seem like a high-risk location for tropical flooding. But residents say their street has had drainage problems for more than a decade, despite local government efforts to fix them.
Debby also dumped rain on communities as far away as the Great Lakes and New York and New Jersey. Moisture from the tropical storm strengthened another system Tuesday night, producing severe thunderstorms, National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Kleebauer said.
“We had a period of multiple showers and thunderstorms moving east from Michigan,” Kleebauer said.
Parts of New Jersey received as much as six inches of rain in less than four hours.
Emergency services in New York City warned of possible flooding, flying drones with speakers in some neighborhoods to tell people in basement apartments to be ready to flee at any time. Multiple rescues were reported in and around the city.
Nearly 330,000 customers were still without power in Ohio as of Wednesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us, after severe storms including two confirmed tornadoes. Officials with FirstEnergy’s Illuminating Company utility said on social media that restoring power would take days due to the damage.
In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster said his state was just entering the second act of a three-act play after more than 60 homes were damaged but roads and water systems showed no significant problems.
The final phase could occur next week if enough rain falls upstream in North Carolina to cause major flooding in rivers flowing to the Atlantic Ocean.
Debby was centered over the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday evening, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east-northeast of Charleston, the National Hurricane Center said.
A state of emergency was in effect for both North Carolina and Virginia. Maryland issued a state of preparedness declaration that coordinates preparations without declaring an emergency.
At least six people have died from the storm, five of them in traffic accidents or from fallen trees. The sixth death was a 48-year-old man in Gulfport, Florida, whose body was recovered after his anchored sailboat partially sank. ___ This story has been updated to remove an incorrect reference to rainfall totals for the Carolinas.
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Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Russ Bynum in Pooler, Georgia; Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed.