'Flooding disaster': Forecasters warn of major flooding
Debby may only be a category 1 hurricane when it strikes Florida, but meteorologists say it's going to move extremely slowly over the Southeast, leading to days of flooding across Georgia and the Carolinas.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We're joined now by AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter.
00:03You know, John, it was over 10 days ago that this wave was coming off Florida and you and
00:07I spoke about this and we said, you know what, this is going to be a late bloomer.
00:13And when we're really going to have to worry about it is the last second as it gets into
00:16the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
00:18And that's unfortunately what we're seeing right now.
00:21Take a look at the satellite and and your impression of Debbie as you take a look at
00:25the satellite picture here.
00:27Here's the latest statistics on Debbie.
00:29Well, we certainly have an intensifying tropical storm.
00:33And as you've been talking about, for all intents and purposes, let's treat this as
00:37a category one hurricane.
00:39It's finally developed that inner core, Bernie.
00:41And that's why, you know, John, do you see the eye now popping?
00:46Do you see the eye now popping?
00:47Yeah, look at that.
00:48There it is.
00:49In that last frame.
00:50Yep.
00:51That concurs with the radar as well.
00:52That's exactly what we've been talking about.
00:54So that's going to be why the storm is going to continue to gain wind intensity fast.
00:58And a rapidly intensifying hurricane makes the impacts even worse.
01:03You almost have to consider it the next level up on their Saffir Simpson wind scale.
01:06So lots of power outages and trees down across the areas near the Big Bend of Florida.
01:13There's a landfall we're projecting 11 a.m.
01:15It could be a little earlier, somewhere around 6 to 11 a.m. into the Big Bend area, John.
01:19And you were mentioning in that area of Florida, a lot of trees and the power outages are going
01:25to be escalating as we move forward.
01:28That can escalate quite quickly.
01:30We saw lots of trees come down with Hurricane Adalia's impacts in that area last year.
01:35And it's not only at the coast that will also be well inland as well.
01:38And across the rest of western Florida, down toward the Tampa area and some of these other
01:44highly populated areas, watch out for some of this rain.
01:47It's going to be coming down one to three inches per hour.
01:49And that's going to result in some serious flash flooding and a tornado risk in some
01:53areas as well.
01:54Speaking of serious flash flooding, we have a serious problem.
01:57We drew this graphic on Thursday, John, because we knew that that jet stream was going to
02:02be lifting northward.
02:04That's what's steering Debbie toward the north.
02:07And that means the steering flow slows down.
02:10And that means we have a real problem across coastal South Carolina.
02:16There's our eye path.
02:17You know, John, what's striking is by Friday, we don't even have this system.
02:22We have this system barely out of South Carolina.
02:26That's the key point.
02:27This is going to be a flooding disaster in some areas.
02:30I cannot stress that enough.
02:32If you have friends or family that live in portions of southeast Georgia up into the
02:36Carolinas, please call them.
02:39Let them know to download the AccuWeather app.
02:41Watch us here on the AccuWeather network.
02:42There is going to be extreme rainfall rates and just so much water over these areas here
02:49through the week.
02:50This is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, a very serious, life-threatening flooding disaster
02:54is going to evolve.
02:55That's why we have rated this storm a three on AccuWeather's real impact scale for hurricanes.
03:00Yeah.
03:01And in fact, you're on a city like Charleston, I want to go back to the eye path.
03:04The way that this storm will be coming through the area, you're going to get days of a persistent
03:10south to southeasterly wind, which is going to pile up the water into the harbor.
03:15And then you're talking about rainfall amounts well over a foot of rain.
03:20So this is going to be a tropical storm when it impacts South Carolina.
03:25But this is why we made the AccuWeather real impact scale, because in this case, it's not
03:31about the wind.
03:32That's how hurricanes get measured for strength.
03:35In this case, we're worried about widespread flooding from the heavy rain.
03:42That's correct.
03:43And that will quickly escalate into life-threatening flooding as we talked about in these areas.
03:47This is the type of storm that AccuWeather created the real impact scale for hurricanes
03:51for.
03:52To describe, look at the difference between a tropical storm and a three designation on
03:57the AccuWeather real impact scale for hurricanes.
03:59We want people to be prepared if you live in low lying areas, especially near the coast.
04:05This flooding is going to be quite serious.
04:07It's going to last for days and roads and will be impassable in some areas with significant
04:14damage potential.
04:15So this is going to be a very serious situation in the Carolinas and parts of southeast Georgia.
04:20John, really quickly, Charleston, Charleston seems to be the epicenter here because you're
04:26going to first get it through the bay with the storm surge.
04:29That's going to cause massive flooding.
04:30And then the fresh water flooding.
04:32I mean, parts of the city can really be underwater.
04:36They can be, and that can create a lot of damage in a heavily populated area like Charleston.
04:40The problem is there's going to be nowhere for the water to go.
04:43It's going to be getting pushed in by that strong onshore flow, as you talked about,
04:47persistent.
04:48Meanwhile, all that fresh water flooding with the rain coming from the sky and all of the
04:53water coming from other locations as well.
04:55That's why this is really going to amplify quickly.
04:58Chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter, John, you and I will talk again at eight o'clock
05:01Eastern.
05:02I want to get straight to the radar because right now the epicenter of the heavy rain
05:06is Tampa.
05:07They are getting absolutely annihilated by this line, this line of thunderstorms coming
05:13right in the Tampa.
05:14There it is.