Debby bringing heavy rain, flooding and possible tornadoes northeast into the weekend

LUCAMA, N.C. (AP) — The remnants of Debby picked up the pace Friday, moving north and northeast from the Carolinas and still packing a punch with heavy rains, flash flooding and the threat of tornadoes.

The mid-Atlantic states and parts of New York and New England will see significant rainfall that could cause dangerous flooding into the weekend, said Jon Porter, Accuweather’s chief meteorologist. A tornado watch was in effect until Friday afternoon in parts of Virginia, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

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

The already drenched parts of northern Vermont that were hit by flash flooding twice last month were bracing for the possibility of more on Friday. Flooding that hit 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.

Debby was a post-tropical cyclone after striking Florida early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane and then making 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.

In the aftermath, waterways swollen by torrential rains threatened communities far behind the weather’s leading edge. Stormwater swamped parts of downtown Annapolis, Maryland, including parts of the U.S. Naval Academy campus.

And more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) south of Debby’s center, flash flooding hit the South Carolina town of Moncks Corner, where one of Debby’s early bands unleashed a tornado on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service reported up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) of fast-moving water on Friday in the community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Charleston, and across the surrounding Berkeley County, emergency crews made 33 high water rescues after r up to 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain fell overnight.

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