Tropical Storm Debby churns over the Atlantic before making second landfall on East Coast
Tropical Storm Debby is taking a breather over the western Atlantic Ocean but it isn’t done dousing the coastal Carolinas before it slowly marches north. Debby, which made landfall along Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, is now loitering off the South Carolina coast, 50 miles southeast of Charleston.
Tropical Storm Debby is taking a breather over the western Atlantic Ocean but it isn’t done dousing the coastal Carolinas before it slowly marches north.
Debby, which made landfall along Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, is now loitering off the South Carolina coast, 50 miles southeast of Charleston. With maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, it's moving northeast at 4 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center's 8 a.m. Wednesday advisory.
The slow-moving storm will churn north and its center will hit the South Carolina coastline for a second landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday. Then, Debby could head up across the Carolinas and the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Thursday and Friday, the weather service said.
The storm has already wrecked havoc, drenching coastal cities in Georgia and South Carolina late Monday into Tuesday, stirring up tornadoes and submerging streets with waist-high floodwaters along the way.
Charleston and Savannah, Georgia, were deluged into Tuesday, with curfews set and roads blocked by police. Downtown Charleston clocked a record rainfall of 3.56 inches in its downtown area, breaking a prior record of 3.46 inches set in 1992, the National Weather Service office there reported.
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