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The remnants of Debby have wound down and cleanup efforts are underway in the D.C. area, after the storm brought major flooding and several downed trees.
Severe weather spurred by Debby knocked down trees, including one that smashed into a town house in Montgomery County, Maryland.
“My wife heard like a crash — a loud noise,” said one neighbor who asked that his name not be made public.
Just a couple doors down from him, a tall, thick tree had fallen over in the heavy rain and strong wind Thursday night along Enterprise Way, not far from Montgomery Village Middle School.
“We saw the tree going from the woods into their backyard and it crushed their fence,” the neighbor said. “It was into their house somewhat, and so it was a pretty big problem.”
The tree crashed onto the roof and dug into part of the structure, causing damage.
No one in the family that lives in the home was injured, and Montgomery County fire officials said it was safe enough for the family to continue living there as the cleanup got underway.
“We talked with them,” the neighbor said. “All things considered, they are doing pretty well because they could have been hurt seriously or killed.”
Friday afternoon, a work crew was on the scene with chain saws, cutting up the tree so it could be hauled away piece by piece.
A tornado watch was in effect for more than 17 million people in parts of Washington, D.C., Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia until 7 a.m. on Friday.
Debby first made landfall Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane. Then, Debby made a second landfall early Thursday in South Carolina as a tropical storm.
Major flooding in Annapolis
When high tide hit downtown just before 9 a.m. Friday in Annapolis, the waters had left City Dock and crossed Randall Street, almost hitting Market House. The sea walls along Ego Alley were breached at nearly their highest points.
There were more ducks waddling along the roads than there were cars driving through them.
“It’s just all water,” said Chris Ousley, a bartender at Dock Street Bar and Grill in Annapolis, Maryland, which saw one of its biggest floods ever recorded.
“This is the ninth-worst flooding we’ve had on record,” said Nicole Torres, a spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management in Annapolis. Earlier this year in January, the city had what Torres said was the “third-worst on record.”
Together, they mark the first time the flood-prone city has had two top 10 flood events in the same year.
It’s Parents Weekend at the Naval Academy, which brought extra eyes to gawk at how deep some of the water ran out of Spa Creek and into parking lots and businesses.
“It looks like a natural lake in front of Dock Street towards the Choptank (restaurant), it’s all one body of water now,” said Clifford Dean III, who lives in Annapolis. “You’ve got the ducks swimming outside in the middle of the street. Good weather to be a duck.”
Also waddling through the floodwater were employees of the businesses that run along Dock Street, which runs parallel to Ego Alley. The water ran knee-high at the doorways to businesses like Storm Brothers Ice Cream and Dock Street Bar and Grill, where Kiri Lynch and Ousley had to retrieve outdoor furniture and trash cans.
“It’s almost up to the edge of the bar,” Lynch said, describing the water inside Dock Street Bar and Grill. “Trash cans everywhere. Literally, everything is floating away.”
Instead of slinging drinks and Old Bay coated wings to Midshipmen and their parents, those two will be spending the day getting ready to reopen for Saturday, when much nicer weather is in the forecast.
“It’s just all water right now,” said Ousley. “It’s just floating stuff that was on the floor. Until this dies down we’re going to have to get a Shop-Vac and clean it up once it dries … We don’t have carpet or anything so it’s easy to clean up. It’s not going to be bad, it’s just going to suck today.”
Torres, with the Office of Emergency Management, said the next high tide shouldn’t be as bad later Friday evening. It’s predicted to come in around 3.4 feet above average, whereas the early morning high tide was 4.2-4.7 feet above average.
“The good news is tomorrow the forecast is looking gorgeous,” she said.
Outside the D.C. area, at least eight people along the East Coast have died related to Debby.
The latest was identified as Hilda Windsor Jones, a 78-year-old woman who was home alone when a tree fell during the storm, splitting open her mobile home in North Carolina, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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