Pouring rain from Debby causes severe flooding in South Carolina
Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live from North Myrtle Beach on the evening of Aug. 6 as Debby inched its way along the Southeast.
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00:00Storm chaser and AccuWeather correspondent Aaron Rigsby. Aaron we've checked in with you
00:04multiple times this evening and I'm sure there will be more through the rest of the week here
00:08as we're dealing with some problems in Myrtle Beach. Now Aaron these are tricky storms because
00:14it's a head game I think when we're dealing with the east side of these storms as it's often on
00:20squalls and then long periods of time without anything going on. So what's it been like today
00:24here in Myrtle Beach? Yeah good evening Jeff. Today especially tonight was a classic case of
00:31I think sometimes these gaps can catch people off guard. We had a really strong fire hose of
00:37rain and thunderstorms move across the north Myrtle Beach area and a lot of people went
00:42scattering out of the streets. They went running for shelters. The rain was coming down and it
00:46didn't take long for a lot of that rain to really accumulate on the roadways. Vehicles started
00:50stalling out. People were kind of poking their heads out of the businesses around here that
00:53were enjoying their evening wondering what the heck was going on because it had accumulated so
00:57fast and that's what we're going to continue to see over the next 24 to 48 hours and it's
01:02going to be a lot worse than that little band that just came through especially as the center of
01:05Debbie closes in on eventually the Myrtle Beach area probably within the next 36 hours and along
01:10with that we're going to see winds sustained upwards of 60 miles an hour and with this
01:14saturated ground we have those trees are going to topple over and we're probably going to see
01:18a lot of power outage issues coming in the next couple of days here. And Aaron right now there
01:22is a pretty impressive band of rain that's kind of lifting. It's going to be impacting areas
01:27just barely to your north up into areas around possibly North Myrtle Beach but also just up at
01:32the Sunset Beach, North Carolina as well. So are you seeing much in the way of storm surge or has
01:39the flooding that you've seen been kind of disconnected from the ocean or the sound and
01:43been mainly tied to rainfall? It's been pretty disconnected so far though. I talked to a couple
01:49police officers over a course of time earlier today and they did mention that they were
01:54concerned about what the next high tide is going to do when the center of Debbie and that onshore
02:00flow and those higher winds start to close in on Myrtle Beach. So people are recognizing that that
02:05could be a potential issue later. We can see anywhere from two to four feet on top of the
02:09normal high tide that's going to be coming through here and with that flash flooding that's been
02:13going on that's going to prevent a lot of draining going on and it's only going to you know further
02:17enhance the flash flooding that's already been ongoing and even long after Debbie is gone I can
02:22already check the forecast and a lot of the rivers around here are set to forecast at Crest a major
02:27flood stage. So even when Debbie's gone we're still going to be dealing with issues from the
02:31storm for several days to come even after it pushes up into the northeast and eventually
02:35back over to the Atlantic. And as you're speaking we're showing our viewers and sharing with them
02:40some of the drone videography that you captured today. Pretty impressive stuff there. A lot of
02:45flooding turning those roads into rivers. Obviously a lot of concerns out there. A lot
02:49of dangers especially at night and especially just with knowledge that some of these squalls
02:53are going to come back in with some ferocity tonight from Myrtle Beach just to the east
02:57near Wilmington, North Carolina. Aaron Rhodes final question for you. What are your plans for
03:01the next few days? I know you're probably not too far from the eastern part of the landfall zone.
03:09Yeah absolutely. So my game plan is to hold right here in Myrtle Beach because for right now it's
03:12kind of a happy middle ground of where I think the worst conditions are going to be. But I
03:15wouldn't be surprised if I end up even further into North Carolina when a lot of that onshore
03:21flow and those flash flooding bands set up. But it's just going to be kind of a waiting game
03:24alongside with everybody else of where exactly that heaviest rain is going to set up. So it makes
03:30the forecast very tricky on where to pinpoint where exactly the worst flash flooding is going
03:34to be. Because the matter of just a few miles can make all the difference in the world between
03:38someone getting an extremely bad flash flood and you know the town over basically having nothing
03:43going on except cloudy skies and some gusty winds. So I'm going to hold right here probably
03:47eventually move up northeast with Debbie and then cover that river flooding after Debbie has long
03:52gone and passed. All right good stuff there Aaron Rigsby. We appreciate that report there and to
03:56your point from North Myrtle Beach right now some heavy rain about seven or eight miles just east
04:01northeast of you along the coastline. Pretty nasty rounds of rain setting in and there will be some
04:06more of this to come. So Sunset Beach the fringe of eastern parts of North Myrtle Beach getting
04:11back into that heavy rain while others breathe a little bit of just a humid side of temporary
04:16relief just for a time. Aaron Rigsby there in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We're going to be
04:22checking in with him again throughout the course of the week. This is a marathon of a storm here.