SO SAD: Debby’s aftermath threatens additional flooding in the Carolinas and leaves thousands without power…

SO SAD: Debby’s aftermath threatens additional flooding in the Carolinas and leaves thousands without power.

PHILADELPHIA: On Sunday, the weather system that was formerly known as Hurricane Debby continued to affect areas of the United States; flood advisories were still in place in North Carolina, and thousands of people in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were without power. Before making landfall in Canada on Saturday, the storm, which had made landfall in Florida as a hurricane on August 5, had lashed out over the East Coast for almost a week, causing damage to homes and fatalities due to flooding and tornadoes. Flood advisories were still in place in central and eastern North Carolina, where additional thunderstorms were predicted over the next three days, even though many rivers had subsided by Sunday. The National Weather Service warned that further flash floods might occur throughout the coastal Carolinas due to localized downpours, given the already wet land left over from Hurricane Debby.

Authorities in Lumberton, N.C., said in a Facebook post Saturday that one person died after driving into floodwaters on a closed road and getting swept away. Officials didn’t identify the driver, but said that what they hoped would be a post-storm rescue, quickly turned into a recovery. “It bears repeating,” the agency said in the post. “Never drive into flooded roadways and obey road closed signage.” In New Bern, North Carolina, business was brisk at the Halftime Pub and Grub restaurant Sunday afternoon just after a flash flood warning was issued, said server Chastity Bettis. “Right now, it’s thundering, sprinkling and pretty dark so I’d say it’s going to start raining hard here pretty soon,” she said. “If you live here, you’re pretty used to hurricane season and it being like this, but the last week or two we’ve been getting it pretty rough.”