All eyes on Pee Dee region for Tropical Storm Debby’s ‘second act,’ McMaster says

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW) — South Carolina’s damage from Tropical Storm Debby has so far been minimal, but a second landfall later this week is expected to hit hard in flood-prone parts of the Pee Dee region, Gov. Henry McMaster said Wednesday.

“We’ve been lucky so far. Things have not been as bad as they could’ve been, although we’ve had a lot of rain and it’s not nearly over,” he said during storm briefing at the state’s emergency operations center. “We’re not nearly out of the woods yet.”

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, Debby was sitting about 55 miles off the Charleston coast, and is likely to touch down again tomorrow near Georgetown County.

The slow-moving system was traveling slowly, with sustained winds of up to 60 mph, dumping nearly another foot of rain across much of northern South Carolina.

“Of particular concern for major flooding is the Little Pee Dee River near Galivants Ferry,” National Weather Service meteorologist John Quagriaiello said Wednesday.

Flooding threats are likely to continue through the middle of next week as rivers begin to crest.

Meanwhile, Debby has damaged 64 homes in the Lowcountry and at least one Horry County business has sustained some type of damage, according to preliminary reports starting to come in, state Department of Emergency Management head Kim Stenson said.

FEMA aid is also in place if needed after President Biden this week approved a disaster declaration request.

“The impacts (of Debby) did not make it up to what the forecast was so far, but there’s a lot of damage out there, and the second act is about to occur,” said regional FEMA coordinator Brett Howard.

FEMA, the state National Guard and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division assets are being redeployed to the northern Grand Strand and Pee Dee areas over the next 24 hours and Debby’s track becomes more certain, officials from those agencies said.

McMaster said lingering impacts of Debby will remain even after the rains clear out, keeping state officials on alert for the next several weeks.

“After the rains are gone and when the sun comes out, we’re still going to have a lot of puddles, a lot of things in small towns,” he said. “All that water that has not yet finished coming through, we may have some of that before the rains end, but we certainly will have more of that after.”

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