PHILADELPHIA — The weather system formerly known as Hurricane Debby had not yet hit all parts of the U.S. on Sunday. Flood warnings were still in effect in North Carolina, and thousands of people were without power in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
After hitting Florida as a hurricane on August 5, the storm spawned tornadoes and flooding for nearly a week, damaging homes and claiming lives along the East Coast before moving into Canada on Saturday.
While many rivers had receded Sunday, flood warnings remained in effect across central and eastern North Carolina, where more thunderstorms were possible in the coming days. With the ground already saturated by Debby, the National Weather Service said localized downpours could lead to additional flash flooding in coastal areas of the Carolinas.
Authorities in Lumberton, NC, said in a Facebook post saturday that one person died after driving into floodwaters on a closed road and being swept away. Officials did not identify the driver but said what they hoped would be a storm rescue quickly turned into a recovery.
“It’s worth repeating,” the agency said in the post. “Never drive onto flooded roads and obey closed road signs.”
In South Carolina, the National Weather Service office is in Charleston warned on sunday that another 3 to 4 inches of rainfall was possible in the afternoon and evening, which could lead to flash flooding. Showers and thunderstorms could develop in Charleston County, into Chatham County and inland, the office said.
Even in drier areas, more than 48,000 homes and businesses in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont were still without power as of Sunday afternoon, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us. About 31,000 power outages were reported in hard-hit Ohio, where Debby-related storms, including tornadoes, tore through the northeastern part of the state on Wednesday.
Debby’s final day and night over the U.S. left parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and New England inundated with rainfall and flash flooding, forcing evacuations and rescues.
Officials in Tioga County in northcentral Pennsylvania said Sunday morning that 10 teams of volunteer emergency responders would be out checking residents for damage as emergency workers continued to search for a person missing since the flooding.
“Please be kind to them because these are volunteers… they work here at the 911 center, they are firefighters, police, EMS, these people dedicate their Sunday to helping you,” said County Commissioner Marc Rice.
Religious disaster relief organizations also mobilized to assess damage and provide relief, said state Rep. Clint Owlett. “That’s going to be a big deal.”
Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring another potential tropical storm in the Atlantic. Officials said a tropical depression is likely to form within a day or two and could reach parts of the Greater Antilles by midweek.
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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Philip Marcelo in New York also contributed to this report.
