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, ove.