Tropical Storm Debby is making her slow, methodical, destructive march across portions of the Southeast.
After hammering Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, Debby is now expected to dump potentially historic levels of rain and bring catastrophic flooding.
Hurricane Debby, now a tropical storm, brings flooding to Florida as it moves towards Georgia and South Carolina. https://t.co/0HGd7bzVFu pic.twitter.com/OmFDVSnDGf
— USA TODAY Video (@usatodayvideo) August 5, 2024
Here’s the latest on the devastating storm that could change the physical landscape of the Southeast.
The latest forecast
Though Debby’s wind speeds are decreasing, torrential, flooding rainfall will still be the biggest threat and last for much of the week.
Charleston, South Carolina, could get more rain in five days than the city typically records in an entire summer. A similar situation could develop in Savannah, Georgia, which could receive a summer’s worth of rain in less than a week.
The system is expected to move slowly through southeastern Georgia until its center emerges over the Atlantic around mid-afternoon today. By tonight, Debby will stall just off the coast of South Carolina through at least Thursday morning. Another landfall is possible sometime Thursday as the storm moves north over the South Carolina coast and then pushes into central North Carolina on Friday.
Storm deaths
A 13-year-old died in Levy County, Florida after a tree blew onto his home. A 64-year-old man was killed when his tractor-trailer plunged off an interstate bridge in Tampa, Florida after he lost control on a wet roadway. A 38-year-old woman and 12-year-old boy are dead after a single-vehicle crash in Dixie County, Florida. And in Georgia, a 19-year-old died after a tree fell on the side of a house.
Power outages and tornadoes
More than 150,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina this morning. Floridians are suffering the vast majority of outages, though outages in Georgia and South Carolina are likely to increase as the storm rumbles across the states.
Two tornadoes have been confirmed so far in South Carolina’s Edisto Beach and Seabrook Island as Tropical Storm Debby brings heavy rainfall and gusty winds to parts of the state.
No injuries have been reported from either tornado.
Edisto Beach — about 50 miles southwest of Charleston — experienced a tornado at around 9:47 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service. The storm left downed powerlines and damaged properties in its wake.
Another tornado tore through Seabrook Island — about 25 miles southwest of Charleston — at around 11 p.m. Monday.