Slow-moving Tropical Storm Debby brings torrential rains and flooding to Southeast

Tropical Storm Debby brought prolonged downpours and flooding to the southeastern United States on Tuesday and was expected to hover over the Atlantic Ocean for the next few days, then boomerang back onto the mainland, leading to potentially record-setting rainfall.

The storm was forecast to move relatively slowly across some of America’s historic Southern cities, including Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C. The National Hurricane Center has forecast up to 25 inches of rain in some areas.

“Hunker down,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson told residents in a social media livestream Monday night. “Expect that it will be a rough day” on Tuesday, he said.

People were trudging through waist-high water in one Savannah neighborhood, and the mayor posted the video as a reminder. “The water is serious,” he said.

The storm’s center was 15 miles south of Savannah, the hurricane center said in its11 a.m. advisory Tuesday. It was moving east-northeast at just 6 mph.

“Tropical cyclones always produce heavy rain, but normally as they’re moving, you know, it doesn’t accumulate that much in one place,” Richard Pasch of the hurricane center said. “But when they move very slowly, that’s the worst situation.”

Tropical cyclones derive their energy from warm water, so Debby has weakened over land, but part of the circulation was interacting with water over the Atlantic, Pasch said. The storm’s center could restrengthen Wednesday before it moves inland again Thursday over South Carolina, he said.

More than 6 inches of rain had fallen through Monday at Savannah’s airport, and it showed no signs of stopping Tuesday, the National Weather Service reported.

Flash flood warnings were issued in Savannah and Charleston, among other areas of coastal Georgia and South Carolina. Both cities announced overnight curfews as the rain picked up.

Tornadoes knocked down trees and damaged a few homes on Kiawah Island and Edisto Island between Savannah and Charleston. A Walmart, an Applebee’s and other businesses were damaged, and several vehicles flipped in Moncks Corner, about 30 miles inland from Charleston.

Charleston police barricaded all eight roads leading into the city Monday night after urging nonresidents to leave, and said the curfew would remain through Tuesday, letting only essential workers and emergency personnel pass through.

The flooding wasn’t limited to coastal areas. Water started spilling over the top of a small dam near Walterboro, S.C., but it didn’t crumble, Colleton County Fire-Rescue Assistant Chief David Greene said in a video briefing. An apartment complex in Walterboro, roughly 50 miles west of Charleston, did flood, and a number of roads in the county were blocked by either standing water or fallen trees, Greene said.

Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Weakening winds made it a tropical storm again, but its slow forward movement and the ocean water it picked up caused intense flooding in places.

At least five people have died due to the storm, either in traffic accidents or from fallen trees.

About 500 people were rescued Monday from flooded homes in Sarasota, Fla., a beach city popular with tourists, the local police department said. Just north of Sarasota, Manatee County officials said 186 people were rescued.

State officials said it may be two weeks before staff members can fully assess storm damage in parts of north-central Florida, as they wait for river levels there to crest.

More than 155,000 customers remained without power in Florida and Georgia on Tuesday morning, down from more than 350,000, according to PowerOutage.us and Georgia Electric Membership Corp. More than 20,000 were without power in South Carolina early Tuesday.

President Biden approved emergency declarations making federal disaster assistance available to Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency Monday. Several areas along the state’s coastline are prone to flooding, such as Wilmington and the Outer Banks, according to the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program.

Forecasters said Debby could make another landfall near Charleston on Thursday.

The hurricane center predicts the system could move up the middle of North Carolina, through Virginia and into the Washington area by Saturday.

Bynum and Collins write for the Associated Press. Collins reported from Columbia, S.C. AP journalists Jeff Martin and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Fla.; and Ben Finley in Norfolk, Va., contributed to this report.