BARRE, Vt. – The remains of Debbie raced north on Friday, picking up speed with torrential rain, flash flooding and the threat of tornadoes, after causing at least eight deaths on a multi-day journey up the East Coast.
Some of the strongest flooding was expected in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, New England states including Vermont, which is recovering from previous flooding. There was a growing threat of tornadoes and flooding along the way, including the busy I-95 corridor, said Jon Porter, chief meteorologist at Accuweather.
“There will be multiple threats in Debby’s final chapter, and it is dangerous,” Porter said.
Vermont Governor Phil Scott warned of serious damage in the state, including already soggy parts of Vermont who were hit by flash floods twice last month. Floods that hit the northeast of the state on July 30 It collapsed bridges, destroyed and damaged homes and destroyed roads in the rural town of Lyndon. It happened three weeks after deadly floods caused by the remains of Hurricane Beryl. President Joe Biden approved Vermont’s emergency declaration.
Vermont amended its state of emergency to ensure access to additional aid, including National Guard vehicles and rescue boats from neighboring states, the governor said.
Debbie was downgraded to a tropical depression late Thursday afternoon, and was a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. Arrived on the mainland early monday in the Florida Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane. Then, Debby made landfall second Thursday morning in South Carolina as a tropical storm.
At 11 a.m. Friday, Debby was centered between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Albany, New York, moving northeast at a rapid speed of 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, tearing open her North Carolina mobile home, the County Sheriff’s Office said. Rockingham.
Stormwater flooded parts of downtown Annapolis, Maryland, including the U.S. Naval Academy campus on Friday. And flooding hit the town of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, where one of Debby’s first bands unleashed a tornado on Tuesday.
Up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) of fast-moving water rushed into Monks Corner, a town about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Charleston, the National Weather Service said. Across Berkeley County, emergency crews made 33 high-water rescues.
In North Carolina, rescuers went door-to-door asking people to evacuate a neighborhood in the town of Haw River, where the river was expected to crest Friday afternoon. The city is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Raleigh.
To the north, Vermonters were bracing for the storm.
Rick Dente, owner of Dente’s Market in Barre, Vermont, worked to protect his business with plastic and sandbags as rain fell Friday. “There’s not much more you can do,” he said.
Jaqi Kincaid, hit twice by flooding in Lyndonville, Vermont, said previous storms destroyed her garage, toppled a 120-foot tree and toppled a fence. “We’re doing this a lot,” she told a reporter, clasping her hands together as if she were praying.
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Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press contributors include Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Lea Skene in Baltimore; and Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
