PHILADELPHIA — The weather system formerly known as Hurricane Debby was not fully resolved in parts of the US on Sunday, as flood warnings remained in effect in North Carolina and thousands of people were left without power in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
After hitting Florida as a hurricane on Aug. 5, the storm spent nearly a week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and claiming lives along the East Coast before making landfall in Canada on Saturday.
Although many rivers had receded by Sunday, flood warnings remained in effect in central and eastern North Carolina, where more storms were possible in the coming days. With the ground already saturated by Debby, the National Weather Service said localized rainfall could result in additional flash flooding in the coastal Carolinas.
Officials in Lumberton, NC, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that one person died after driving through floodwaters on a closed road and being swept away. Authorities did not identify the driver, but said what they hoped would be a post-storm rescue quickly turned into a recovery.
“It’s worth repeating,” the agency said in the post. “Never drive on flooded roads and obey road closed signs.”
In New Bern, North Carolina, business was brisk at the Halftime Pub and Grub restaurant on Sunday afternoon, shortly after a flood warning was issued, server Chastity Bettis said.
“Right now it’s thundering, raining and very dark, so I would say it’s going to start raining heavily here soon,” she said. “If you live here, you’re pretty used to hurricane season and that, but the last two weeks we’ve been going through a pretty tough situation.”
In South Carolina, the National Weather Service office in Charleston warned sunday that up to 3 to 4 inches of additional rain was possible in the afternoon and evening, which could lead to flash flooding. Showers and thunderstorms are possible across Charleston County, through Chatham County and inland, the office said.
Even in drier areas, more than 35,000 homes and businesses in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont still did not have electricity as of Sunday afternoon, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us. About 23,000 outages occurred in hard-hit Ohio, where Debby-related storms, including tornadoes, ripped through the northeastern part of the state on Wednesday.
Debby’s final day and night over the U.S. inundated parts of New York, Pennsylvania and New England with rain and flash flooding on Friday, prompting evacuations and rescues.
Stacey Urban, whose family owns Moss Vanwie Farm in Canisteo, New York, said the floods destroyed about three-quarters of the farm’s 1,200 acres, including about 400 acres of corn, 200 acres of soybeans and hundreds of acres of hay. used for food. their cows and other animals.
“This is complete and utter devastation,” she said by phone Sunday as fire department workers rescued the home’s flooded basement. “We never thought this would happen.”
Urban said the family, which has operated the farm for about 37 years, has not had a chance to take full stock of the damage, but said all of its 150 cows and 200 young animals are safe and all farm equipment has been recovered.
“Whether it all works is another thing,” she said. “The water came in quickly.”
Recovery efforts were underway in Steuben County in upstate New York. Officials announced plans to distribute water bottles and cleaning kits to residents affected by flash floods on Sunday and Monday. The Red Cross also opened a shelter for flood victims at Corning-Painted Post High School and planned to have it operated by Monday.
The county located along the Pennsylvania state line declared a state of emergency on Friday and ordered the evacuation of several cities as flood waters swallowed homes, farms and roads. The area has been hit by devastating flash floods in previous storms, including in 2021.
“Twice in three years, Tuscarora Creek went from a gentle stream to a raging beast,” county officials said. wrote in a post on the government’s Facebook page on Sunday afternoon. “It’s too much. The sun still rose on Saturday. Volunteers prepared breakfast. People from all four cities rolled up their sleeves and took a deep breath.”
Officials in north-central Pennsylvania’s Tioga County said Sunday morning that 10 teams of emergency service volunteers would be surveying residents about the damage, as responders continued the search for a person missing since the floods. .
“Please be nice to them, because they are volunteers…they work here at the 911 center, they are firefighters, they are police, they are EMS, these people are dedicating their Sunday to help you,” said County Commissioner Marc Rice.
Religious relief organizations have also mobilized to help assess the damage and provide aid, said state Rep. Clint Owlett. “This is going to be a big deal.”
Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center is tracking another potential tropical storm in the Atlantic. Officials said a tropical depression will likely form over the next two days and could approach parts of the Greater Antilles by midweek.
____
Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Philip Marcelo in New York also contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
