Tropical Storm Debby moves off the Georgia coast, but flood risks remain

Tropical Storm Debby moved out into the Atlantic off the coast of Georgia Tuesday — but people living in the eastern part of the state are not finished with it yet.

Why it matters: Sun is in the forecast for Metro Atlanta on Wednesday but our friends in southeastern Georgia remain on alert this week as the deadly storm prepares to make landfall once again.

State of play: Debby made a slow trek Tuesday out of Georgia and over the Atlantic. From there, the storm will regroup and regain some strength before arriving on the shore of South Carolina on Thursday, the National Weather Service said .

• There's less certainty about what could happen next. Coastal South Carolina could see continued rainfall and in some areas catastrophic flooding.
• Although the storm's biggest threats have moved north, flooding will remain a risk in some parts of Georgia this week, per the Savannah Morning News .

Meanwhile, a clearer picture is emerging of the storm's destruction so far.

• In Moultrie, Georgia, a 19-year-old died when a tree fell on his porch, officials told the AJC . In Florida, the storm was responsible for at least four deaths, CBS reported .
• In Savannah, there were reports of people trapped in homes due to floodwater on Tuesday. More than a dozen roads were flooded.

By the numbers: James C. Stallings, the director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, said at a Tuesday news conference that 18 water treatment facilities along the coast were running with back-up generators to prevent service disruptions.

• More than 300 Georgia National Guard members were in position to assist if needed, Adjutant General Dwayne Wilson said.

The big picture: Some of the biggest flood events in the Southeastern United States have come in the past two decades, owing to slow-moving tropical storms and hurricanes, such as Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports .

• Coastal population growth has also put more people in harm's way , including in Georgia.