Several people were rescued by boat and by helicopters across the region on Friday as Debby sped through the area, dumping rain on land that was already soaked from earlier this week.
The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for the area. Debby spawned deadly twisters earlier in the week and was expected to continue doing so before it blows out to sea Saturday afternoon.
A woman in her flood-damaged home in Canisteo, New York after Tropical Storm Debby. (AP PHOTO)
The governors of Pennsylvania and New York issued disaster and emergency declarations to free up resources to assist the areas of northern Pennsylvania and southern New York where flash floods left people stranded and in need of rescue.
The NWS issued flood warnings and tornado watches for parts of an area stretching from coastal Georgia to Vermont, as the storm moved northeast at 55km/h, considerably faster than earlier in the week.
Debby, a slow-moving storm for most of the week, has dropped as much as 63cm of rain on its march north and killed at least eight people.
Since making its first landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Florida's Gulf Coast on Monday, Debby has submerged homes and roadways, and forced evacuations and water rescues as it slowly crawled up the Eastern Seaboard.
The weather service fielded reports of a handful of tornadoes since Thursday. In Browns Summit, North Carolina, about 130km northwest of Raleigh, a 78-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on her mobile home.
8pm EDT 9th August -- NHC is monitoring the next tropical wave currently moving into the Central Atlantic, which now has a high chance (70% 🔴) of developing into a tropical cyclone over the next 7-days.— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) Latest outlook: https://t.co/DboWSR4Ct1 pic.twitter.com/Sq9Ks2tvIuAugust 9, 2024
Earlier, a twister killed a man when his house collapsed in Wilson County in eastern North Carolina. It damaged at least 10 houses, a church and a school.
Vermont, which is under a state of federal emergency, has already faced a slew of rainstorms from a separate system that has washed out roads, damaged homes and swollen rivers and creeks with floodwaters.
The remnants of Debby could bring another 8cm or more rain, the weather service said.
