ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Tropical Storm Debby is on the Florida-Georgia border and is slowly pushing northeast toward the Georgia coast.
Glynn County remains under a storm surge warning for coastal areas. Officials advise all residents to remain vigilant and monitor potential impacts of Debby.
Forecasters are warning that heavy rain from Tropical Storm Debby could spawn catastrophic flooding in Georgia and surrounding states.
The F.J. Torras Causeway will remain open unless there are water hazards and flooding. Sidney Lanier Bridge will remain open unless wind speeds reach 40 mph sustained. Any decision to close the Bridge will be made by Georgia Department of Transportation.
In Georgia, the National Weather Service is predicting major flooding on some rivers: the Canoochee River near Claxton, the Ohoopee River near Reidsville and the Ogeechee River near Eden. All those rivers were below flood stage Monday but could see their water levels more than double by later in the week.
Storm surge is a major concern along the coast on top of the rain. Some areas are set to see 3-6 inches of rain on Monday into Tuesday and 10 or more inches over the next three days.
Thousands were already without power on Monday afternoon.
Governor Brian P. Kemp issued a state of emergency for all 159 Georgia counties ahead of the storm.
In Savannah, local leaders said flooding could happen in areas that don’t usually get high water if Debby stalls out over the city.
“This type of rain hovering over us, coming with the intensity that they tell us it is coming, it’s going to catch a whole lot of people by surprise,” said Chatham County Chairman Chester Ellis.
In South Carolina, Charleston County Interim Emergency Director Ben Webster called Debby a “historic and potentially unprecedented event” three times in a 90-second briefing Monday morning.
The city of Charleston has an emergency plan in place that includes sandbags for residents, opening parking garages so residents can park their cars above floodwaters and an online mapping system that shows which roads are closed due to flooding.
North Carolina and South Carolina have dealt with three catastrophic floods from tropical systems in the past nine years, all causing more than $1 billion in damage.
In 2015, flooding rains fed by moisture as Hurricane Joaquin passed well offshore caused massive flooding that nearly knocked Columbia’s water system offline.
In 2016, flooding from Hurricane Matthew caused 24 deaths in the two states and rivers set record crests. Those records were broken in 2018 with Hurricane Florence, which set rainfall records in both Carolinas, flooded many of the same places and was responsible for 42 deaths in North Carolina and nine in South Carolina.
In Savannah, Jim Froncak piled sandbags into his pickup truck on Monday, as rain was already falling. He said a recent thunderstorm caused so much flooding that he and a friend were able to kayak down a street.
“That was just a thunderstorm,” he said. “So, who knows what could happen with this?”
Georgia DOT teams statewide have equipment loaded and crews are on alert, including immediate-response strike teams ready to respond to the historic rainfall event and expected flooding in Southern and Southeastern Georgia this week. Motorists can expect detours and road closures as the department responds to the anticipated impacts of the storm.