Tropical Storm Debby is crawling through Georgia and the Carolinas, where it's dumped dangerous amounts of rain and spawned tornadoes. At least five people are dead after the storm made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Monday.
Though Debby is now a tropical storm, the worst may be yet to come as Georgia and South Carolina prepare for as much as 25 inches of rain before the storm moves to the northeast later this week.
On Tuesday the National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm warning between Altamaha Sound, Georgia and Surf City, North Carolina.
The storm is expected to bring potentially historic rainfall totals that may trigger catastrophic flooding. The National Hurricane Center says 10 to 20 inches of rain, with cases of up to 25 inches, may fall in the eastern half of South Carolina and southeast North Carolina through Friday.
Through Saturday, 3 to 6 inches and local accumulations of up to 8 inches are possible from central South Carolina north to Southwest Virginia, portions of the mid-Atlantic States, western and northern New York State and Northern New England.
As much as 3 inches of scattered rainfall may continue to fall in Georgia through Tuesday.
Tornadoes are possible over coastal South Carolina and North Carolina until Wednesday morning.
The storm has maximum winds of 40 mph and is moving at just 3 mph — a walking pace that will keep rain-bearing clouds in place over areas for a long time.
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In Charleston, South Carolina, where eight inches of rain have fallen in the city and as much as six more are forecast, Mayor William Cogswell Jr. extended the city's curfew.
"The curfew is working," he said. "We have written a number of tickets and will continue to do so, so please stay home."
Local officials reported tornadoes that flipped a car and downed trees and power lines north of the city.
Debby is expected to gather strength after it moves back over the the Atlantic Ocean over the next few days.
In Florida,more than 45,000 were without power as of Tuesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.
Crews in Florida will attempt to restore power and clear roadways on Tuesday now that the storm has moved out of the state.
Debby also disrupted travel. Over 9,000 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. on Monday were delayed, and nearly 2,000 flights were canceled, according to FlightAware. By Tuesday night, there were more than 8,000 flight delays or cancellations within, into, or out of the U.S.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on a current tour of battleground states, have postponed previously scheduled stops in North Carolina and Georgia due to the storm.
