Remnants of Debby threaten the Northeast with flooding, possible tornadoes

By LISA RATHKE and DAVID SHARP
Associated Press

BARRE, Vt. — The remnants of Debby raced northward on Friday, picking up speed with lashing rain, flash flooding and the threat of tornadoes, after causing at least eight deaths over a multi-day path up the East Coast.

Some of the heaviest flooding was expected from New York’s Adirondack Mountains, across New England states including Vermont, which is recovering from previous flooding. There was an increased threat of tornadoes and flooding along the path including the busy I-95 corridor, said Jon Porter, Accuweather’s chief meteorologist.

“There will be multiple threats in Debby’s final chapter, and it’s a dangerous one,” Porter said.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott warned of serious damage in the state, including already drenched parts of Vermont that were hit by flash flooding twice last month. Flooding that slammed the northeastern part of the state on July 30 knocked out bridges, destroyed and damaged homes, and washed away roads in the rural town of Lyndon. It came three weeks after deadly flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. President Joe Biden approved Vermont’s emergency declaration.

Vermont amended its state of emergency to ensure access to additional help, including vehicles from the National Guard and rescue boats from neighboring states, the governor said.

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.

By 11 a.m. Friday, Debby was centered between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Albany, New York, moving northeast at a rapid 37 mph (59 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

At least eight people have died related to Debby. The latest was identified as Hilda Windsor Jones, a 78-year-old woman who was home alone when a tree fell during the storm Thursday night, splitting open her mobile home in North Carolina, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said.

To the north, Vermonters were making ready for the storm.

Rick Dente, who owns Dente’s Market in Barre, Vermont, worked to protect his business with plastic and sandbags as the rain poured down on Friday. “There isn’t a whole lot else you can do,” he said.

Jaqi Kincaid, hit by flooding last month in Lyndon, Vermont, said the previous storm knocked out her garage and well, so they have no water, and felled a 120-foot (36-meter) tree and took down fencing. “We’re doing a lot of this,” she told a reporter, holding her hands together as if in prayer.

Stormwater swamped parts of downtown Annapolis, Maryland, including at the U.S. Naval Academy campus Friday. And flash flooding hit the South Carolina town of Moncks Corner, where one of Debby’s early bands unleashed a tornado on Tuesday.

Up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) of fast-moving water rushed into Monks Corner, a city about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Charleston, the National Weather Service said. Across the surrounding Berkeley County, emergency crews made 33 high water rescues.

People were trapped by flood waters and water rescues were launched in a rural area of upstate New York, according to the National Weather Service. Residents of Steuben County were told to avoid unnecessary travel.

“There are multiple roads that are unpassable and emergency responders are handling dozens of calls,” said a notice from county emergency officials.

In North Carolina, first responders went door-to-door urging people to evacuate from a neighborhood of about 30 houses in the town of Haw River, where the river was expected to crest Friday afternoon. The town is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Raleigh

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This story has been updated to correct that Jaqi Kincaid was hit once by flooding, not twice.