Debby finally moves out of the U.S., though risk from flooded rivers remains

Debby finally moved out of the U.S. on Saturday after the storm spent the better part of week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and taking lives as it moved up the East Coast after first arriving in Florida as a hurricane.

Debby’s last day over the U.S. before blowing into Canada inundated south-central New York and north-central Pennsylvania with rain, prompting evacuations and rescues by helicopter. The post-tropical cyclone continued dropping rain on New England and southern Quebec, Canada, on Friday night with conditions expected to improve Saturday morning as the system continued moving northeast.

Some of the worst flash flooding in New York on Friday happened in villages and hamlets in a largely rural area south of the Finger Lakes.

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 lifted as threat of severe flooding passed.

In the hamlet of Woodhull, a rain-swollen creek overtopped a bridge. Area resident Stephanie Waters said parts of sheds, branches and uprooted trees were among the debris that slammed into the span.

“Hearing the trees hit the bridge was scary,” she said.

Fire Chief Timothy Martin said everybody in the town was safe, but “every business in Woodhull is damaged.”

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. “It’s been very fierce,” said Anderson, who was providing dispatches to The Wellsville Sun. He said he watched people’s belongings get carried away by the raging water.

In Canisteo, farm owners Deb and Cliff Moss suffered heavy damage to their dairy farm, which has been there for more than five decades. A neighbor’s 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 hard to fathom.

“They have lost a lot. Beyond heartbreaking,” 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.

“The water’s going down, and so what's left is this really thick — it's like wet concrete — mud,” Farkas said.

“Like a lot of people, I don’t have flood insurance, so I doubt my homeowner’s 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 Tropical Storm Fred three years earlier and that a half-dozen swift water rescue teams had retrieved people trapped in vehicles and homes.

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, which borders New York, because of severe flooding conditions in the region. Padfield said Tioga officials asked for help with eight to 10 rescue locations, and boat-based rescues were also 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.

“My understanding is the roadway is pretty much well gone,” Rossman said. “That’ll be a very costly replacement. And one of the main thoroughfares in the county.”

He said one firefighter suffered water-related injuries, but Rossman did not know the extent.

Late Friday, more than 90,000 customers were without power in New York and Pennsylvania, down from 150,000 customers earlier in the day, according to PowerOutage.us. In Ohio, nearly 144,000 customers were still waiting for power to come back on Friday night after Debby-related storms including tornadoes blew though the northeastern part of the state on Wednesday.

Debby was downgraded to a tropical depression late Thursday afternoon and was a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. It made landfall early Monday 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.

There have been at least nine deaths related to Debby, most in vehicle accidents or from fallen trees.

In Vermont, where more than 44,000 customers were without electricity on Friday night, Gov. Phil Scott had warned that Debby's remnants could cause serious damage, including in already drenched places that were hit by flash flooding twice last month. But a flood watch was called off by mid-evening. Flooding that slammed the northeastern part of the state on July 30 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 Hurricane Beryl. President Joe Biden approved Vermont’s emergency declaration.

Rick Dente, who owns Dente’s Market in Barre, Vermont, worked to protect his business with plastic and sandbags as the rain poured down on Friday. “There isn’t a whole lot else you can do,” he said.

Jaqi Kincaid, hit by flooding 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.

“We’re doing a lot of this,” Kincaid said, holding her hands together as if in prayer.