Tropical Storm Debby continued over land after the storm system hit the Florida coast, and churned over the U.S. Southeast to the north of Florida, with significant flooding and damage from winds seen in the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina.
The city even implemented a curfew this week, a relatively new security measure for the local government there, who said the curfew would be lifted once officials were certain residents would be safe to travel during certain late night hours.
The region had forecast more strong winds by Wednesday as the storm system lingered over the East Coast. The curfew allowed emergency management to focus on significant urgent calls for help, and to mitigate the number of calls for stranded vehicles due to flooding.
Emergency management officials urged residents not to use generators or gas grills inside of homes as a matter of basic safety while power companies worked to get power turned back on in some areas.
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Tropical Storm Debby battered the southeastern U.S. after the deadly storm swamped areas along the East Coast. Reports said at least six people died in the storm conditions.
By Wednesday, the center of the tropical storm was just off the coast of Georgia, moving toward the South Carolina coast to arrive by Thursday.
Debby made landfall Monday as a Category 1 hurricane on Florida’s Gulf Coast, then moved on to Georgia.
The storm was not expected to strengthen back into a hurricane again. Debby did create some small tornadoes, though — in one area vehicles were tossed over each other and windows were badly damaged with toppled trees.
The storm disrupted travel, with almost 7,000 flights delayed in the United States on Tuesday. FlightAware reported that around 1,700 flights were canceled.
By Wednesday there were over 1,000 delays and cancellations by earlier morning, Scripps News reported.
By Friday the storm was expected to reach the Washington, D.C. area and downgrade to a depression.
