Tropical Storm Debby made a second landfall on Thursday in South Carolina where it is expected to drop as much as 9 inches of rain amid fears of severe flooding as the slow-moving storm system lumbers up the East Coast, according to reports.
Debby came ashore near Bulls Bay, S.C. As of 8 a.m. on Thursday it was about 65 miles west-northwest of Myrtle Beach with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and higher gusts.
Some portions of eastern South Carolina will see rainfall amounts as high as 25 inches, forecasters warned. Considerable flooding is expected across portions of eastern South Carolina and southeast North Carolina through Friday.
A Tropical Storm Warning was in effect for the area north of South Santee River, South Carolina to Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina.
Debby is moving toward the northwest near 7 mph and is expected to accelerate across South Carolina and central North Carolina through Thursday night the National Hurricane Center said in an update.
Debby is then expected to move faster toward the northeast across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Friday and Atlantic Canada on Saturday.
The storm is expected to weaken and become a tropical depression later Thursday,
At least six people have died in Florida and Georgia because of the storm, which hit the Gold Coast of Florida on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, the Associated Press reported.
The governors of North and South Carolina, Florida and Georgia have declared states of emergency.
In Georgia, officials in Bulloch County reviewed the damage in the wake of Debby where four dams were breached, more than 75 people rescued and about 100 roads closed.
"We've been faced with a lot of things we've never been faced with before," Bulloch County Commission Chairman Roy Thompson said, the AP reported.
"I'm 78-plus years old and have never seen anything like this before in Bulloch County. It's amazing what has happened, and amazing what is going to continue to happen until all these waters get out of here," he said.
The storm could dump up to 7 inches of rain from central North Carolna northward across portions of Virginia through Friday with some pockets seeing 10 inches, the National Weather Service reported.
Marying through upstate New York and Vermont could measure up to 4 inches of rain through Friday night.
