LUMBERTON — Local ditches, swamps and other rural water ways overflowed onto Robeson County roads, businesses and many properties late last night as Tropical Storm Debby moved over Southeast North Carolina.
Stil, of greatest concern is the Lumber River which rose to 16 feet at the Lumberton water gauge. Flood Stage is 13 feet.
The Lumber River is expected to rise to 19.8 feet at 8 p.m. tonight, before slowly receding over the coming days.
National Weather Service forecasters said at 8 a.m today that Debby will continue to threaten the Greater Robeson County region with areas of flash flooding today.
Residents in low lying areas should seek higher ground immediately. “Debby will continue to move farther inland today, then begin to accelerate away from the region tonight into Saturday,” according to a statement from the NWS this morning.
”Areas of flash flooding will continue as water pools into low-lying areas, and additional heavy rainfall occurs today. This is a dangerous situation, do not drive through flooded areas, and seek higher ground if flooding threatens your area.”
Other key points from this morning’s briefing :
- Tropical storm force winds are also possible, especially across eastern areas of northeast South Carolina and southeast North Carolina, and the adjacent Atlantic waters.
- Storm surge inundation of 1 to 3 feet could result in some mostly minor coastal flooding along the beach front and tidal areas, especially during high tide later this morning. Coastal Flooding along the lower Cape Fear River will continue with the next several high tides.
- The threat for isolated tornadoes will continue for southeast North Carolina, especially this morning. The tornado threat will gradually shift away from the area during the day.
POWER OUTAGES
Duke energy is reporting hundreds of outages around Robeson.
“As Tropical Storm Debby lingers across the Carolinas, it will bring high winds and torrential rains, according to a media statement from Duke Energy this morning. “Crews will assess damage and restore service as quickly as possible in areas where conditions allow, though we expect these ongoing weather challenges to slow progress until the storm fully exits our service areas.” Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation, which serves almost 23,000 accounts in Robeson County reports that power is out at 4,698 locations it serves.
This is a developing story. Stay with Robesonian.com as news becomes available.
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