Slow-moving Tropical Storm Debby brings torrential rains, major flooding threat to southeastern United States

HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby moved menacingly toward some of the most historic cities in the U.S. South and is expected to bring prolonged rain and flooding throughout the day Tuesday after it slammed into Florida and prompted hundreds of people to be rescued from flooded homes.

Record rains from the storm that killed at least five people Monday caused flash flooding, with up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) possible in some areas, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm’s center was located off southeast Georgia early Tuesday, with maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kph) and moving northeast at about 7 mph (11 kph). The center is expected to move away from the Georgia coast later Tuesday. Strengthening is expected Wednesday and Thursday as Debby drifts offshore, before moving inland over South Carolina on Thursday.

“Stay calm,” Savannah, Georgia Mayor Van Johnson told residents Monday night in a livestream on social media. “Expect a tough day” Tuesday, he added.

Flash flood warnings have been issued in Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, among other coastal areas in Georgia and South Carolina. Savannah and Charleston both announced curfews from Monday night through Tuesday.

In South Carolina, Charleston County Interim Emergency Manager Ben Webster called Debby a “historic and potentially unprecedented event” three times during a 90-second briefing Monday.

In addition to the curfew, the city of Charleston’s emergency plan includes sandbagging residents, opening parking lots so residents can park their cars above floodwaters and an online mapping system that shows which roads are closed due to flooding.

In Edisto Beach, South Carolina, a tornado struck Monday night, damaging trees and homes and downing power lines, the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office said on social media. No injuries were immediately reported, authorities said.

The National Weather Service continued to issue tornado warnings late Monday night for parts of the state, including the island town of Hilton Head.

Debby made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane. It has weakened to a tropical storm and is moving slowly, soaking and causing areas of catastrophic flooding in parts of eastern Georgia, the South Carolina coastal plain and southeastern North Carolina through Wednesday.

Nearly 500 people were rescued Monday from flooded homes in Sarasota, Florida, a popular beach town, the Sarasota Police Department said in a social media post. Just north of Sarasota, Manatee County officials said in a news release that 186 people had been rescued from floodwaters.

“We basically had twice as much rain as expected,” Sarasota County Fire Chief David Rathbun said on social media.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has warned that the state could continue to face threats as waterways north of the border fill up and flow south.

“This is a very wet, saturating storm,” he said. “When the waves peak and the water comes down from Georgia, we’re going to be on alert, not just today, but all next week.”

Five people died Monday night from the storm, including a truck driver on Interstate 75 in the Tampa area after he lost control of his tractor-trailer, which overturned on a concrete wall and hung over the edge before the cab fell into the water below. Sheriff’s Department divers located the driver, a 64-year-old Mississippi man, in the cab 40 feet below the surface, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

A 13-year-old boy died Monday morning after a tree fell on a mobile home southwest of Gainesville, Florida, according to the Levy County Sheriff’s Office. In Dixie County, just east of where the storm made landfall, a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy died in a car crash on wet roads Sunday night.

In southern Georgia, a 19-year-old man died Monday afternoon when a large tree fell on the porch of a home in Moultrie, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

More than 140,000 customers were still without power in Florida and Georgia as of Tuesday morning, down from a peak of more than 350,000, according to PowerOutage.us and Georgia Electric Membership Corp. Nearly 12,000 more were without power in South Carolina early Tuesday.

More than 1,600 flights were also canceled nationwide Monday and more than 550 flights were canceled early Tuesday, many to and from Florida airports, according to FlightAware.com.

President Joe Biden approved the South Carolina governor’s request to declare a state of emergency, after approving a similar request from Florida. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he asked Biden to preemptively declare a federal state of emergency to speed up the flow of federal aid to the state.

Vice President Kamala Harris has postponed a campaign stop scheduled for Thursday in Savannah.

North Carolina has also been in a state of emergency since Gov. Roy Cooper declared it in an executive order signed Monday. Several coastal areas of the state are prone to flooding, such as Wilmington and the Outer Banks, according to the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program.

North Carolina and South Carolina have faced three catastrophic floods caused by tropical systems in the past nine years, each causing more than $1 billion in damage.

In 2015, moisture-fueled rainfall from Hurricane Joaquin’s passage off the coast caused massive flooding. In 2016, flooding from Hurricane Matthew caused 24 deaths in both states and rivers reached record levels. Those records were broken in 2018 by Hurricane Florence, which set rainfall records in both Carolinas, flooded many areas, and caused 42 deaths in North Carolina and nine in South Carolina.

Martin reported from Atlanta. AP reporters Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Fla.; Michael Schneider in Orlando, Fla.; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga.; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C.; Darlene Superville and Will Weissert in Washington; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Wash., contributed to this report.