Debby weakens to a tropical depression, threatening more flooding and tornadoes in North Carolina

(CNN) — After causing at least six deaths in the Southeast, Debby has weakened to a tropical depression and is still dumping rain and threatening tornadoes Thursday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Tropical Depression Debby is now centered 45 miles east of Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the center’s 5 p.m. advisory. Debby is moving to the north-northwest at 10 mph and is expected to quickly accelerate over the next 24 hours.

“Heavy rainfall across portions of the Carolinas is expected to persist through today along with areas of considerable flooding,” the hurricane center said. “Heavy rainfall will also result in considerable to locally catastrophic flooding impacts across portions of the Mid-Atlantic states and Northeast through Saturday morning.”

The death toll from the storm rose to six after it spawned a destructive tornado Thursday that killed a man in Lucama, North Carolina. The tornado damaged homes and a school in the area, which is around 35 miles southeast of Raleigh.

Track the storm: Debby’s path

Since crashing into Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, Debby has dumped more than a foot of rain over parts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The deluges have engorged rivers, flooded roadways and trapped people in cars, homes and boats – and potentially dangerous heat is expected across the region in the coming days, threatening to complicate the recovery process.

Even more chaos is on the horizon as the storm, a reflection of the amplifying consequences of human-fueled climate change, heads toward the Northeast. Here’s the latest:

• Debby’s death toll climbs: One person is dead after a tornado spawned by Debby tore through part of North Carolina’s Wilson County in the earliest hours of Thursday morning, leaving behind damage to a middle school, a church and multiple homes. A man was killed after his home in the town of Lucama collapsed, a county spokesperson told CNN. At least four people in Florida and one in Georgia were also killed by Debby.

• At least a dozen tornadoes confirmed: Debby has whipped up at least a dozen tornadoes as of Thursday that have roared through parts of Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. A tornado in Snow Hill, North Carolina early Thursday was described as “large, extremely dangerous and potentially deadly.” A tornado watch is in effect through 8 p.m. ET for 6.8 million people in parts of eastern North Carolina and southern Virginia, including the cities of Raleigh, Virginia Beach and Richmond.

• Flash flood emergency: Debby’s torrential rainfall cut off one North Carolina town from its surrounding areas after up to 8 inches of rain fell in just a few hours Wednesday night, according to a rare flash flood emergency issued by the National Weather Service. Officials in Bladenboro – located in the southern part of the state – reported 3 foot deep floodwater.

• Debby’s current path: The system will pick up additional speed and lose more strength Thursday as it moves through North Carolina and into northern Virginia by Friday morning. Debby will accelerate through Pennsylvania and New York Friday and move through New England by early Saturday afternoon, bringing heavy rain and flash flooding to a region drenched by storms earlier this week.

• ‘Be prepared for a deluge,’ North Carolina governor says: Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents Wednesday to brace for major rain and flooding. “All North Carolinians across our state need to be prepared for a deluge,” Cooper said, describing the incoming threat as “more rain than most of us see in a month, or even several months.” Rainfall totals across the state surpassed a foot by early Thursday afternoon. Dangerous rip currents and storm surge up to 3 feet will persist along the Carolinas’ coasts Thursday.

• Disaster declarations across the Southeast: President Joe Biden has approved disaster declarations for Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas – all of which have been pummeled by Debby this week. More than 700 Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel have been deployed to the Southeast, and search and rescue teams are on standby to assist as needed, the agency said Wednesday.

• Georgia dam at risk of ‘imminent failure’: A dam in Bulloch County, Georgia – about 50 miles northwest of Savannah – is in danger of “imminent failure” as a result of Debby’s torrential rainfall, the National Weather Service in Charleston, South Carolina, said. Parts of the county have already suffered serious flooding, requiring water rescues in a mobile home park. But if the dam breaks, communities immediately downstream are at the greatest risk for more flooding and may be asked to evacuate.

• Triple-digit heat in store for Southeast: Potentially dangerous heat has been hovering over the Southeast in Debby’s wake and is expected to persist through the weekend as storm recovery continues. While high temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s are expected, the heat indices – how the body feels under combined heat and humidity – could exceed 110 degrees , including in Steinhatchee, Florida, near where Debby made its first landfall.

‘It’s like National Geographic in our backyard’

Debby’s deluge has been a clear illustration of the impact of global warming caused by fossil fuel pollution, which is causing storms to get wetter and strengthen more quickly. Debby, for instance, tracked through near-record warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, which helped it rapidly intensify before making landfall as a hurricane in Florida.

As Debby has churned through the Southeast, the storm has left behind disastrous scenes. Homes have been shredded by winds and swamped by floodwaters, and roads have been washed out or submerged, creating hazardous conditions for impacted communities.

In South Carolina’s Lowcountry, a home in Bluffton has become an alligator’s paradise as floodwaters turned Adrienne LeBlanc’s yard into an inviting swampland.

Though LeBlanc is no stranger to alligators – often seeing them sunbathing in the distance – she was surprised to wake up after heavy rains Wednesday to discover her backyard had been invaded by alligators.

“It’s like National Geographic in our backyard right now,” LeBlanc told CNN. She counted eight alligators swimming around her house and saw a few of them wrestling.

“Jokingly I told my husband, ‘When I wake up tomorrow that bad boy is going to be in our bedroom,’” LeBlanc said.

After 17 years of living in Bluffton, LeBlanc said she has experienced this level of flooding once – when Hurricane Matthew made landfall in the state in 2016.

South Carolina hasn’t seen a named storm make landfall on its shores since Hurricane Ian’s arrival in 2022 as a Category 1 storm. The last named storm to track across the state in any fashion was Tropical Storm Idalia in August 2023.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire

™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.