Intense Flooding After Debby Slams East Coast

First responders launched high-water and helicopter rescues of people trapped in cars and homes in rural New York and Pennsylvania as heavy rain from the remnants of Debby slammed the Northeast with intense floods. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro declared states of emergency. More than 150,000 customers were without power across New York and Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us. There have been at least nine deaths related to Debby, most in vehicle accidents or from fallen trees. More on the weather system and its aftermath:

• Debby status: The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression late Thursday afternoon and was a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. It made landfall early Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, emerged over the Atlantic Ocean, and then hit land a second time early Thursday in South Carolina as a tropical storm.
• New York: The worst of the flash flooding so far in New York was occurring in villages and hamlets in a largely rural area south of the Finger Lakes, not far from the Pennsylvania border, per the AP. In Steuben County, which borders Pennsylvania, officials ordered the evacuation of the towns of Jasper, Woodhull, and part of Addison, and said people were trapped as floodwaters made multiple roads impassable. Jack Wheeler, the manager of Steuben County, said the storm was hitting some of the same areas as Tropical Storm Fred three years earlier, and that a half-dozen swift-water rescue teams were retrieving people trapped in vehicles and homes.

• Pennsylvania: Randy Padfield, the state's Emergency Management Agency director, said a National Guard helicopter with aquatic rescue capability was sent to Tioga County because flooding conditions had become severe in the region, which runs along the New York state line. In Potter County, also on the border with New York, the storm took out bridges and did severe damage to Route 49, Commissioner Bob Rossman said. He noted that one firefighter suffered water-related injuries, though he didn't know the extent of those injuries.
• Other states: In Vermont, where more than 47,000 customers were without power, Gov. Phil Scott warned that Debby's remnants could cause serious damage, including in already drenched places that were hit by flash flooding twice last month. Stormwater also swamped parts of downtown Annapolis, Maryland, including at the US Naval Academy, on Friday. And flash flooding hit the South Carolina town of Moncks Corner, where one of Debby's early bands unleashed a tornado on Tuesday. Across the surrounding Berkeley County, emergency crews made 33 high-water rescues. Meanwhile, there were eight dam breaches in Georgia, half of them in rural Bulloch County, northwest of Savannah, Gov. Brian Kemp said. At one point, 140 people were in shelters, he said. Some poultry facilities flooded, and some cattle were lost in flooded pastures, officials noted.

More here. (More Hurricane Debby stories.)