Debby keeps pounding South Carolina with flooding rain and dangerous winds
Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live from Myrtle Beach on the evening of Aug. 7 as Debby slowly headed toward a second landfall.
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00:00Joining us right now is storm chaser Aaron Rigsby live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
00:04with more on the conditions there. And Aaron, I checked in with you on this yesterday and today
00:10I'm going to ask again, is there much of a change between how much flooding is from the rainfall and
00:15how much is from the storm surge? Yeah, good evening Jeff. So not much change as far as the
00:21way the flash flooding and the storm surge goes. But speaking of the storm surge, I will say the
00:25biggest change today has been the amount of beach erosion that's been going on on the beaches here
00:30of Myrtle Beach. I've walked out several times and it seems like every time I come out there
00:34more and more is getting chipped away and several of those instances they've nearly eroded away and
00:38some of that water is getting pushed up into some of the parking lots and some of the walkways where
00:42the ocean typically is not there. And now behind me too, you can see there's still a fair amount
00:47of traffic out, but all things considered for this time of year in Myrtle Beach, people seem
00:51to be staying off the roadways for the most part. But the problem has been those breaks in between
00:55the rain. It's everyone I kind of think lets their guard down and they're like, okay maybe it's starting
00:58to clear up now. Another round of rain comes through, we see some flash flooding and unfortunately
01:02yesterday we saw some of those vehicles stall out as people were trying to make their way back to
01:06their safe spot. And what's the mood out there? I know that you said some people have been out and
01:12about. Are people, are they tolerating the storm pretty well? Are they fearful of it or are they
01:18just kind of shrugging at it and waiting for this to be done? Honestly, it's been a bit of a mixed
01:24bag. There's a lot of folks that are kind of frustrated because they're down here trying to
01:27enjoy their vacation, enjoy what's left of their summer trip, and then others are kind of just,
01:32you know, they're in higher spirits and trying to make the most of what they've been given.
01:36But, you know, everyone else has been talking about the storm. That's one thing for certain.
01:40It's been the talk of the city and everyone's kind of just sitting around wondering when this
01:44marathon of tropical storm Debbie is going to finally be over. And we do expect landfall sometime
01:50later on this evening into the overnight hours. And that's when I expect more of those sustained
01:54winds upwards of 60 mile an hour to come on shore. And that's also a thing that we're going to have
01:58to talk about too, because the ground is so saturated that when those winds come on shore,
02:02the ground is already saturated and a lot of those trees are going to start toppling over.
02:05And I bet we see an increase in power outages across this area too, only leading to more
02:09frustration of those vacationers. And looking at the recent power outage numbers so far, not so
02:14bad in South Carolina, Georgia's numbers are back down, still about 25,000 addresses in the dark
02:19in North Florida. But because the center of the storm's circulation is a little more
02:23open, a little broader, you don't need to be immediately at the point of landfall to get
02:27the strongest winds. They may be displaced a little to the east and that might put Myrtle
02:31Beach right in the middle of that zone. So, Aaron, where are you expecting to camp out
02:35when it makes landfall? Are you going to go to the coastline? You going to stay a certain spot in town?
02:41As of right now, I'm going to be riding on the coastline. Anywhere from here down to Georgetown,
02:45South Carolina, get that center most portion of the tropical system and see what kind of
02:50winds are going to be compacted in there. And of course, document any kind of damage left behind
02:54and any flooding that's going to remain from this. And we have to pay close attention to
02:57those rivers as well, because that's going to be the story for days to come, even after Debbie
03:00is on shore. That's very true. We do have two homes damaged from a tornado up in Harrells,
03:05North Carolina, dozens of miles to your north, about 100 miles or so from a couple of, well,
03:10there's a tornado confirmed there earlier this afternoon. So that's going to be an issue too
03:14that we have to keep an eye on, on the east side of the circulation.
03:16Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby. Aaron, thanks again so much.