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. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro declared states of emergency. More than 150,000 customers were without power across New York and Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us. There have been at least nine deaths related to Debby, most in vehicle accidents or from fallen trees. More on the weather system and its aftermath:
- Debby status: The storm 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.
- New York: 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, per the AP. 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. Jack Wheeler, the manager of Steuben County, 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.