Charles Grainger cleans up around his home in the historic French Quarter Creek area as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Debby recede in Huger, South Carolina, on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

HUGER, S.C. (AP) — Days of rain from Tropical Storm Debby have led flooded residents of a South Carolina community to the almost ritualistic task of assessing the damage left behind by the cyclone that swirled over the Atlantic Ocean and swept thunderstorms from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.

Gene Taylor waited for several inches of water to flow again Wednesday afternoon due to high tide from his home along French Quarter Creek in Huger, about 15 miles northeast of Charleston.

Taylor saw the potential for flooding last week and began moving items in her home outside or higher. It’s a lesson learned the hard way. Taylor estimates this is the fourth flooding she’s experienced at her home in the last nine years.

“To save everything, we have learned from the past that it is better to be prepared for the worst. And unfortunately, I think we got it,” Taylor said.

A few doors down, Charles Granger was cleaning up after about 8 inches of water entered his home. He said it was annoying but he was getting used to it.

“Eight inches can turn your whole life upside down,” Grainger said: “You don’t get used to it. You just grin and bear it. It’s part of living on the creek.”

The National Hurricane Center warned that Tropical Storm Debby could bring up to 65 centimeters (2 feet) of rainfall to isolated areas.

For Georgia homeowners living on Tappan Zee Drive in the western Savannah suburb of Pooler, the soaking brought on by Debby came with a painful dose of déjà vu. In October 2016, heavy rain from Hurricane Matthew overtopped a nearby canal and flooded several of the same homes.

Located about 30 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and with no nearby streams or rivers, this inland neighborhood does not appear to be at high risk for tropical flooding.

But residents say their streets have been plagued with sewage problems for more than a decade, despite local government efforts to address the problems.

Debby also dumped rain on residents as far away as the Great Lakes and New York and New Jersey. Moisture from the tropical storm strengthened another storm system Tuesday evening, which also produced powerful thunderstorms, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Kleebauer.

“We had a period of multiple showers and thunderstorms moving east from Michigan.” Kleebauer said:

Up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell in less than four hours in some parts of New Jersey.

Emergency workers flew drones with loudspeakers over some New York City neighborhoods, warning of possible flash flooding and telling people in basement apartments to be ready to flee immediately. Numerous water rescues were reported in and around New York City.

According to PowerOutage.us, nearly 330,000 customers in Ohio were without power as of Wednesday afternoon due to severe storms.

Meanwhile, “near failure” A dam in southeast Georgia threatens to flood a mobile home park and other areas downstream, the National Weather Service said in a flash flood warning Wednesday afternoon. Cypress Lake Dam is in Bulloch County, about 50 miles northwest of Savannah.

“If the dam breaks, there will be a flash flood just below the dam” That’s what the weather service said.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said the state is entering act two of a three-act play.

“We’ve been lucky so far. Things haven’t been as bad as they could have been.” McMaster said the heavy rains damaged more than 60 homes but did not cause any significant problems to roads or water systems.

Act 2 ends Thursday night when Debby returns to the coast, this time bringing heavy rain back to the northern part of the coast and inland. Another 4 to 8 inches of rain is possible, said John Quagliariello, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Columbia.

“It may not be as catastrophic as we say, but we still think that as these rainbands develop, they can stay in the same area for long periods of time, producing a lot of rainfall and a lot of flooding.” Quagliariello said.

The final act could come next week if enough rain falls in upper North Carolina and causes major flooding in rivers that drain into the Atlantic Ocean.

The National Hurricane Center said the center of Debby was located over the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday afternoon, 55 miles (89 kilometers) east-southeast of Charleston. The tropical storm is expected to make a second landfall in North Carolina or South Carolina late Wednesday or early Thursday. Debby first made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane.

Both North Carolina and Virginia had states of emergency in effect. Maryland issued a preparedness declaration coordinating preparations for the storm without declaring a state of emergency.

At least six people died as a result of the storm, five of them in traffic accidents or from falling trees. The sixth death involved a 48-year-old man whose body was found after his sailboat partially sank while moored in Gulfport, Florida.

Crowds flocked to the Brown Dog Deli in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday after two days of preparations and precautions for Tropical Storm Debbie.

“We have a lot of locals coming in looking for a good meal after being closed for two days.” said kitchen manager Liz Denney.

Some water seeped in around the sandbags that employees had put up on Monday, but Denney said the restaurant had experienced worse flooding at other times last year.

The deli closed early Monday and was unable to open Tuesday because of a curfew imposed by local authorities, but Denney said standing water and occasional outages are part of living on the coast.

“It’s part of the territory.” Denny said.

The first words of the person who answered the phone at the deli on Wednesday were: “Yes, we’re open.”