Reports that tornadoes may have touched down near Washington, D.C. , in Alexandria, Virginia , have been circulating as Tropical Storm Debby , now Tropical Depression Debby, reaches the northern portions of the East Coast.
The remnants of the storm picked up the pace on Friday, swiftly moving northeastward away from the Carolinas. They're still packing a punch despite the weakening nature of the storm, with heavy rains and flash flooding still a massive threat. Tornadoes are also part of the equation.
States in the mid-Atlantic region, portions of New York and New England are slated to see heavy rainfall over the next few days that could lead to dangerous flooding through the weekend along Interstate 95, especially near the bigger cities in the region, according to Accuweather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter.
READ MORE: Eye of Storm Debby mapped as Florida on tornado watch and shock photos reveal severe damage to soaked state
READ MORE: Storm Debby to hit Charlotte with flash floods after NC man found dead inside home crushed by tornado
Eastern Virginia up through Vermont is under tornado threats, too, he said. "There will be multiple threats in Debby's final chapter, and it's a dangerous one," he said.
It was unclear whether a tornado actually touched down in the D.C. area on Thursday or Friday by the time the threat had mostly passed on Friday morning. According to the National Weather Service , the region is under a tornado watch through 2 p.m. EDT on Friday. The watch encompasses portions of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well.
A tornado watch differs from a warning in that a watch means that "tornadoes are possible in and near the watch area," while a warning means that "a tornado has been sighted or indicated by weather radar," according to the NWS.
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Debby was downgraded to a tropical depression late Thursday afternoon and then was dubbed a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center. It originally made landfall on Monday along the Gulf Coast of Florida, hitting as a Category 1 hurricane.
Then, the storm made a second landfall on early Thursday in South Carolina, this time as a tropical storm. Despite the storm's relative weakness, it still killed eight people, with the latest being a 78-year-old woman who was killed Thursday night when a tree fell on her home in Browns Summit in northeast Greensboro, North Carolina, as Debby passed through the state, according to Rockingham County Sheriff's Office Lt. Kevin Suthard.
Tornadoes spawned on Thursday from Debby that leveled homes, damaged a school and killed one person, it was reported, with the tropical storm also dropping heavy rain and flooding communities across the Carolinas. In just 15 seconds, a tornado devastated Genesis Cooper's home in Lacuma, North Carolina, a small town just 40 miles east of Raleigh. He nearly slept through it, waking up only because of an alert on his wife's phone.
The family was able to huddle in the bathroom with blankets as the storm passed through. He said they felt vibrations and heard glass shattering before the sudden boom that meant his home had exploded.
"I can't even describe it. It's like, suction. That's what it felt like, like something is squeezing, like your ears are popping," he said. That was just one of three reported tornadoes in North Carolina and was arguably the most devastating. Another person was found dead in a home damaged by the Lacuma tornado, according to Wilson County spokesperson Stephen Mann.
Springfield Middle School was also damaged in the storm that had tornadoes sweeping through Wilson County, the superintendent said. Drone footage shows portions of the building's roof ripped off.
As the storm continues traveling up the East Coast, more damage and possibly more tornadoes are expected. And residents are being cautioned and told to buckle down for flooding, high winds and rains and tornadoes.
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