Nearly 130K in North Carolina without power after Tropical Storm Debby makes 2nd landfall

Nearly 130,000 of homes and businesses were in the dark in North Carolina Thursday morning after Tropical Storm Debby made a second landfall unleashing flooding across the state.

As of just after 9 a.m. local time, more than 129,000 people in The Tar Heel State were without power.

USA TODAY's Power Outage Tracker showed the heaviest outages clustered in four counties in the central part of the state:

• Mecklenberg County , which had more that 23,000 customers without power;
• Chatham County , which had more than 12,300 customers without power;
• Gaston County , which had more than 8,200 customers without power;
• Forsyth County , which had more than 7,500 customers without power.

Live updates: Tropical Storm Debby makes second US landfall, drenches Carolinas again

North Carolina power outage map

When did Tropical Storm Debby hit North Carolina?

According to the National Hurricane Center's 2 a.m. update , Debby made its second landfall early Thursday near Bulls Bay, less than 30 miles northeast of Charleston, South Carolina, with maximum sustained winds up to 50 mph.

The storm rolled ashore along Florida's Big Bend region Monday before moving across Georgia and meandering along the Atlantic coast. It's expected to bring up to 8 inches of rain, with some areas seeing potentially 15 inches across parts of the Carolinas and Virginia Thursday and Friday.

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State of emergency for North Carolina still in effect, evacuations underway

Governor Roy Cooper declared a State of Emergency for North Carolina on Monday due to Debby on the heels of expecting rain, potential flooding, and outages

Potential impacts from Tropical Storm Debby also include tornadoes as tropical storm warnings and watches were in effect for much of eastern North Carolina Thursday with voluntary evacuations are underway in some areas, officials said.

"More than 350 soldiers and airmen from the North Carolina National Guard have been activated, and swift water rescue teams are on standby throughout the state," Cooper's office said in a news release . "The State Emergency Response Team has pre-positioned people and equipment to expedite help to local communities, including supplies such as water, sandbags, tarps, and water pumps."

As of Thursday the extent of damage to the region and any potential storm casualties were not immediately known.

Contributing: Christopher Cann

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nearly 130K in North Carolina without power after Tropical Storm Debby makes 2nd landfall