DC, Maryland prepare for Tropical Storm Debby

WASHINGTON ( DC News Now ) — In D.C., preparations for the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby are underway.

The District’s Emergency Operations Center will be staffed over the next few days to respond.

Since the whole area has been in a drought, that means there’s concern for flash flooding because the ground isn’t as absorbent.

D.C.’s Emergency Operations Center is gearing up for a potentially dangerous storm Thursday night into Friday.

“That presents the potential for some, urban flooding, some inland flooding. And that’s what we’re going to be keeping an eye on,” said Clint Osborn, director of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA). “The other concern we have is trees, downed power lines and things like that with gusty winds.”

DC Water has teams out clearing debris around catch basins and personnel ready to respond to any incidents.

HSEMA is tasked with coordinating the storm response.

“We always want our residents calling 311. They can do that when you identify a blocked storm drain before a storm, the earlier the better,” Osborn said. “We track all those and we dispatch teams out to clean those. And then after the storm, reporting trees down, power lines down, things like that.”

In Montgomery County, Md. similar preparations are underway.

“What we’re concerned about is the near-random locations of high-intensity rainfalls that overwhelm the local stormwater management systems in that area, then lead to other street-based flooding. You can get backyard flooding,” Earl Stoddard, assistant Chief administrative officer of Montgomery County, said.

The county has flood sensors near certain roads to alert drivers.

Stoddard said they’re taking as many proactive steps as they can.

“We will have the emergency operations center actively monitoring during the peak of the storm, certainly Friday into Saturday,” Stoddard said. “So we’ll have we’ll have some of our partners in the EOC ready to actively respond to whether that’s water rescues or if we see places where we need to close roadways.”

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