As Debby barrels toward the Northeast, rivers are still rising in its wake
The skies may be sunny in Georgia and the Carolinas now that Debby is heading north, but in some areas, its impacts are just now being felt as rivers burst over their banks.
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00:00Right now, we're joined by storm chaser Aaron Rigsby, who's live from Cypress Lake near
00:03Register, Georgia. So Cypress Lake, not far from Register, Georgia there in Bullock County.
00:08Aaron, the sun is shining, but we understand they're still dealing with some big issues.
00:12So tell us what's going on there. Yeah, good evening, Jeff. I've actually learned a lot since
00:18the last time we spoke about what occurred here. And that dam failure fear is with good reason.
00:23I talked to a couple of residents here. You can see some of the damage left behind right here
00:27behind me. They told me it rose three feet in just 30 minutes. And actually, this is about 50
00:33yards behind me where the lake is. It spilled out of its bank, came up here and over the roadway
00:38about an additional one to two feet as that flash flood from Debbie roared on through. So the fears
00:43of this dam failing are definitely within good reason. The water is obviously down now, but the
00:48damage is done. And all of these homes through here have sustained severe damage from that flash
00:52flood. And Aaron, are we expecting to see many more rivers rise here? I know that some of the
00:59rivers are obviously rising, but is there a lot of concern about any evacuations as additional
01:04rises may occur in the area? Yeah, absolutely. I expect that trend to continue for the next couple
01:12of days, not just here in Georgia, but South Carolina and North Carolina as well. I came
01:16across some of those evacuations about 30 minutes to the east in Medlin, Georgia, and they were
01:21evacuating some homes among the immediate riverfront there because it was rising so quickly,
01:26endangering some of those homes there. So a lot of those people had to get out before the water
01:30rose too high. And unfortunately, this morning over in Clarkston, North Carolina, I came across
01:34several vehicles that had been swept off the roadway all the way up to their roofs. Thankfully,
01:38it looks like they escaped, but that's been the common theme with Debbie is that flash flooding.
01:42And now the river flooding we've talked so much about. It's blue skies now, but now it's getting
01:46hot humid, and now we have river flooding to worry about. Absolutely. And Aaron, I know that
01:52your coverage for this particular storm may be winding down as the sun's back out. The river
01:57flooding is still a big story. What are your plans here for the rest of the evening?
02:04Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to continue covering a lot of this river flooding, and this is a prime
02:08example of why covering the aftermath of these events is so important because even me as a
02:12journalist and a storm chaser, I had no idea that this even occurred with Debbie. So with these
02:15images coming out, there's bringing a lot of awareness to the impacts Debbie is still leaving
02:19behind, even though it's now a tropical depression and moving well off into the northeast. So I'm
02:23going to keep relaying those reports, keep talking to people, and keep bringing those stories to you
02:27guys throughout the evening. All right. Well, we'll look forward to that here and online as well. A
02:31lot of Aaron's stories and videography you can find on AccuWeather.com and on the AccuWeather
02:36app as well. So thanks again. In Bullock County, Georgia, Aaron Rigsby. Good report there, Aaron.