See Tropical Storm Debby’s Projected Path

Tropical Storm Debby spent part of Tuesday off the coast in the Atlantic, but it’s not finished with the East Coast quite yet, as it is set to make a second landfall in South Carolina on Wednesday.

Debby made landfall in northern Florida on Monday as a Category 1 Hurricane, bringing historic heavy rainfall across southwest Georgia and South Carolina’s coastal plain. 

Now downgraded to a Tropical Storm, Debby is slow-moving, but still impactful. The National Hurricane Center warned on Aug. 5 that Hurricane Debby could cause “life-threatening storm surge” near the gulf Coast of Florida, with some 6-to-10 feet of inundation expected in the region, and that storm surge is set to continue across South Carolina and North Carolina throughout the week. Forecasters say Debby has the potential to bring “catastrophic flooding,” per the National Weather Service (NWS) of South Carolina, with its heaviest impact expected through Wednesday.

According to the National Hurricane Center’s advisory on Wednesday morning, the storm is set to turn toward the north and north-northwest, restrengthening and bringing the center of Debby to the South Carolina coast by Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

Then, the storm is expected to fasten its pace across both the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic throughout Thursday and Friday. Forecasters say it could produce an additional 3-to-9 inches of rainfall leading to maximum storm total amounts as high as 25 inches in South Carolina and 15 inches in southeast North Carolina. A “tornado or two” may also occur over the Carolinas as well.

Still, forecasters say that the storm will begin to weaken on Thursday after the center of the storm moves more inland.

On Tuesday, the storm wreaked havoc across Georgia and parts of South Carolina. Charleston saw a record-breaking 3.56 inches of rainfall in its downtown area, according to the national weather service office in the city.

Officials have been asking people to stay home. “When the water rises, when you have streets that can be flooded, that’s hazardous,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press conference on Monday. “Don’t try to drive through this. We don’t want to see traffic fatalities adding up. Don’t tempt fate, don’t try to go through these flooded streets.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency on Monday, in preparation for the storm’s return to the coast. 

“It is critical for North Carolinians to take precautions and prepare as this weather system approaches our state,” said Cooper. “Our Emergency Response Team is working closely with local officials and they are ready to respond as we continue to monitor the storm.”

President Joe Biden approved Florida’s emergency declaration on Sunday, and went on to approve emergency declarations for Georgia and South Carolina on Monday. In a statement on Tuesday, the Biden-Harris Administration urged those in flooding areas to “stay off the roads,” “document any property damage,” and “stay away from power and communications lines.”

Some 280,000 Florida homes were without power as of 10 a.m. E.T. Monday morning, per PowerOutage.us. Florida’s Taylor County, where Debby made landfall in the town of Steinhatchee, reported that the entire county was out of power. Approximately 17,000 linemen have been sent to help with power restoration, per the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM).