First responders launched high-water and helicopter rescues of people trapped in cars and homes in rural New York and Pennsylvania as heavy rain from the slammed the Northeast with intense floods.
The worst of the flash flooding so far in New York was occurring in villages and hamlets in a largely rural area south of the Finger Lakes, not far from the Pennsylvania border.
In Steuben County, which borders Pennsylvania, officials ordered the evacuation of the towns of Jasper, Woodhull and part of Addison, and said people were trapped as floodwaters made multiple roads impassable. By mid-evening, some of those orders were being lifted as threat of severe flooding passed.
In the hamlet of Woodhull, a rain-swollen creek ran so ferociously that the water overtopped a bridge. Area resident Stephanie Waters said parts of sheds, branches and uprooted trees were among the debris that slammed into the span.
鈥淗earing the trees hit the bridge was scary,鈥� she said.
Fire Chief Timothy Martin said everybody was safe in the town, but 鈥渆very business in Woodhull is damaged.鈥�
John Anderson said he watched the floodwaters come up quickly, overwhelming some vehicles in Canisteo, in Steuben County, and nearby in Andover, in Allegany County. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a slow rise. It鈥檚 been very fierce,鈥� said Anderson, who was providing dispatches to The Wellsville Sun. He said he watched people鈥檚 belongings get carried away by the raging water.
In Canisteo, farm owners Cliff and Deb Moss suffered heavy damage to their dairy farm, which has been there for more than five decades. A neighbor鈥檚 double-wide trailer floated down a field to a river during the flooding, said their daughter, Stacey Urban.
Urban said the catastrophic damage to the community was still coming into focus and was hard to fathom.
鈥淭hey have lost a lot. Beyond heartbreaking,鈥� Urban said.
Ann Farkas, who also lives in Canisteo, said it was the first time her home, one of the oldest in the county, has flooded since she moved there in 1976. She now has to shovel out layers of thick and heavy silt that were left behind.
鈥淭he water鈥檚 going down, and so what's left is this really thick 鈥� it's like wet concrete 鈥� mud,鈥� Farkas said. Her plans are to clean out a garage so furniture can be moved there before the baseboards, floorboards and possibly the subflooring on the first floor can be ripped up.
鈥淟ike a lot of people, I don鈥檛 have flood insurance, so I doubt my homeowner鈥檚 is going to cover any of this," she said.
Steuben County manager Jack Wheeler said the storm was hitting some of the same areas as three years earlier and that a half-dozen swift water rescue teams were retrieving people trapped in vehicles and homes.
About 20 evacuees arrived at a shelter set up at a high school, Red Cross spokesperson Michael Tedesco said. A second shelter was also being set up at another high school in Steuben County.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro declared states of emergency.
Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Randy Padfield said a National Guard helicopter with aquatic rescue capability was sent to Tioga County because flooding conditions had become severe in the region, which runs along the New York state line.
Padfield said Tioga officials have asked for help with eight to 10 rescue locations, and multiple boat-based rescues were also being conducted.
In Potter County, also on the border with New York, the storm took out bridges and did severe damage to Route 49, Commissioner Bob Rossman said.
鈥淢y understanding is the roadway is pretty much well gone,鈥� Rossman said. 鈥淭hat鈥檒l be a very costly replacement. And one of the main thoroughfares in the county.鈥�
He said one firefighter suffered water-related injuries, but Rossman did not know the extent.
More than 150,000 customers were without power across New York and Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us.
Debby late Thursday afternoon and was a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. It made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, emerged over the Atlantic Ocean and then hit land a second time early Thursday in South Carolina as a tropical storm.
In Vermont, where more than 47,000 customers were without power, Gov. Phil Scott had warned that Debby's remnants could cause serious damage, including in that were hit by twice last month. But a flood watch was called off by mid-evening. Flooding that slammed the northeastern part of the state knocked out bridges, destroyed and damaged homes, and washed away roads in the rural town of Lyndon. It came three weeks after deadly flooding from the remnants of . President Joe Biden approved Vermont鈥檚 emergency declaration.
Rick Dente, who owns Dente鈥檚 Market in Barre, Vermont, worked to protect his business with plastic and sandbags as the rain poured down on Friday. 鈥淭here isn鈥檛 a whole lot else you can do,鈥� he said.
Jaqi Kincaid, last month in Lyndon, Vermont, said the previous storm knocked out her garage and well, so they have no water. It also felled a 120-foot (36-meter) tree and took down fencing.
鈥淲e鈥檙e doing a lot of this,鈥� Kincaid said, holding her hands together as if in prayer.
Stormwater swamped parts of downtown Annapolis, Maryland, including at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday. And flash flooding hit the South Carolina town of Moncks Corner, where one of Debby鈥檚 early bands unleashed a tornado on Tuesday. Across the surrounding Berkeley County, emergency crews made 33 high-water rescues.
There were eight dam breaches in Georgia, half of them in rural Bulloch County northwest of Savannah, Gov. Brian Kemp said. At one point, 140 people were in shelters, he said. Some poultry facilities flooded, and some cattle were lost in flooded pastures, officials said.
There have been at least nine deaths related to Debby, most in vehicle accidents or from fallen trees.
___
This story has been updated to correct that Jaqi Kincaid was hit once by flooding, not twice. It also has been updated to correct the spelling of the Pennsylvania governor鈥檚 name.
___
Sharp and Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Hill reported from Altamont, New York. Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press journalists Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York; Lisa Rathke in Barre, Vermont; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; and Susan Haigh in Norwich, Conn. contributed to this report.
David Sharp, Michael Hill, Mark Scolforo And Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press
