Flooding from the remnants of Debby leads to high water rescues in New York, Pennsylvania

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This article was published 09/08/2024 (778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BARRE, Vt. – 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 remnants of Debby 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.

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

Fire Chief Timothy Martin said everybody was safe in the town, 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 not a slow rise. 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 Cliff and Deb 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 still coming into focus and 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. She now has to shovel out layers of thick and heavy silt that were left behind.

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

“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 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.

“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.

More than 150,000 customers were without power across New York and Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us.

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.

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 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.

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’s 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.

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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’s name.

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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.