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'Flooding disaster': Forecasters warn of major flooding
AccuWeather
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8/5/2024
Debby may only be a category 1 hurricane when it strikes Florida, but meteorologists say it's going to move extremely slowly over the Southeast, leading to days of flooding across Georgia and the Carolinas.
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00:00
We're joined now by AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter.
00:03
You know, John, it was over 10 days ago that this wave was coming off Florida and you and
00:07
I spoke about this and we said, you know what, this is going to be a late bloomer.
00:13
And when we're really going to have to worry about it is the last second as it gets into
00:16
the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
00:18
And that's unfortunately what we're seeing right now.
00:21
Take a look at the satellite and and your impression of Debbie as you take a look at
00:25
the satellite picture here.
00:27
Here's the latest statistics on Debbie.
00:29
Well, we certainly have an intensifying tropical storm.
00:33
And as you've been talking about, for all intents and purposes, let's treat this as
00:37
a category one hurricane.
00:39
It's finally developed that inner core, Bernie.
00:41
And that's why, you know, John, do you see the eye now popping?
00:46
Do you see the eye now popping?
00:47
Yeah, look at that.
00:48
There it is.
00:49
In that last frame.
00:50
Yep.
00:51
That concurs with the radar as well.
00:52
That's exactly what we've been talking about.
00:54
So that's going to be why the storm is going to continue to gain wind intensity fast.
00:58
And a rapidly intensifying hurricane makes the impacts even worse.
01:03
You almost have to consider it the next level up on their Saffir Simpson wind scale.
01:06
So lots of power outages and trees down across the areas near the Big Bend of Florida.
01:13
There's a landfall we're projecting 11 a.m.
01:15
It could be a little earlier, somewhere around 6 to 11 a.m. into the Big Bend area, John.
01:19
And you were mentioning in that area of Florida, a lot of trees and the power outages are going
01:25
to be escalating as we move forward.
01:28
That can escalate quite quickly.
01:30
We saw lots of trees come down with Hurricane Adalia's impacts in that area last year.
01:35
And it's not only at the coast that will also be well inland as well.
01:38
And across the rest of western Florida, down toward the Tampa area and some of these other
01:44
highly populated areas, watch out for some of this rain.
01:47
It's going to be coming down one to three inches per hour.
01:49
And that's going to result in some serious flash flooding and a tornado risk in some
01:53
areas as well.
01:54
Speaking of serious flash flooding, we have a serious problem.
01:57
We drew this graphic on Thursday, John, because we knew that that jet stream was going to
02:02
be lifting northward.
02:04
That's what's steering Debbie toward the north.
02:07
And that means the steering flow slows down.
02:10
And that means we have a real problem across coastal South Carolina.
02:16
There's our eye path.
02:17
You know, John, what's striking is by Friday, we don't even have this system.
02:22
We have this system barely out of South Carolina.
02:26
That's the key point.
02:27
This is going to be a flooding disaster in some areas.
02:30
I cannot stress that enough.
02:32
If you have friends or family that live in portions of southeast Georgia up into the
02:36
Carolinas, please call them.
02:39
Let them know to download the AccuWeather app.
02:41
Watch us here on the AccuWeather network.
02:42
There is going to be extreme rainfall rates and just so much water over these areas here
02:49
through the week.
02:50
This is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, a very serious, life-threatening flooding disaster
02:54
is going to evolve.
02:55
That's why we have rated this storm a three on AccuWeather's real impact scale for hurricanes.
03:00
Yeah.
03:01
And in fact, you're on a city like Charleston, I want to go back to the eye path.
03:04
The way that this storm will be coming through the area, you're going to get days of a persistent
03:10
south to southeasterly wind, which is going to pile up the water into the harbor.
03:15
And then you're talking about rainfall amounts well over a foot of rain.
03:20
So this is going to be a tropical storm when it impacts South Carolina.
03:25
But this is why we made the AccuWeather real impact scale, because in this case, it's not
03:31
about the wind.
03:32
That's how hurricanes get measured for strength.
03:35
In this case, we're worried about widespread flooding from the heavy rain.
03:42
That's correct.
03:43
And that will quickly escalate into life-threatening flooding as we talked about in these areas.
03:47
This is the type of storm that AccuWeather created the real impact scale for hurricanes
03:51
for.
03:52
To describe, look at the difference between a tropical storm and a three designation on
03:57
the AccuWeather real impact scale for hurricanes.
03:59
We want people to be prepared if you live in low lying areas, especially near the coast.
04:05
This flooding is going to be quite serious.
04:07
It's going to last for days and roads and will be impassable in some areas with significant
04:14
damage potential.
04:15
So this is going to be a very serious situation in the Carolinas and parts of southeast Georgia.
04:20
John, really quickly, Charleston, Charleston seems to be the epicenter here because you're
04:26
going to first get it through the bay with the storm surge.
04:29
That's going to cause massive flooding.
04:30
And then the fresh water flooding.
04:32
I mean, parts of the city can really be underwater.
04:36
They can be, and that can create a lot of damage in a heavily populated area like Charleston.
04:40
The problem is there's going to be nowhere for the water to go.
04:43
It's going to be getting pushed in by that strong onshore flow, as you talked about,
04:47
persistent.
04:48
Meanwhile, all that fresh water flooding with the rain coming from the sky and all of the
04:53
water coming from other locations as well.
04:55
That's why this is really going to amplify quickly.
04:58
Chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter, John, you and I will talk again at eight o'clock
05:01
Eastern.
05:02
I want to get straight to the radar because right now the epicenter of the heavy rain
05:06
is Tampa.
05:07
They are getting absolutely annihilated by this line, this line of thunderstorms coming
05:13
right in the Tampa.
05:14
There it is.
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