A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
In South Carolina, people are being urged to stay home and off the roads.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That's because Tropical Storm Debby is expected to dump potentially catastrophic amounts of rain, especially along the coast.
MARTÍNEZ: South Carolina Public Radio's Victoria Hansen joins us now from where she lives just outside Charleston, about a mile from the beach. Victoria, what are you seeing this morning?
VICTORIA HANSEN, BYLINE: Well, I'm seeing lots of rain this morning. In fact, it was so heavy at times overnight, it was kind of tough to sleep. Now, we did have a tornado touch down just south of Charleston, which damaged homes, and we're under a flash flood warning for much of the morning. The problem is this storm is expected to creep along our coast. The National Weather Service in Charleston says anywhere from 10 to 20 inches of rain is likely, with the possibility of up to 30 inches in some places. So to give you some perspective, we typically get 50 to 60 inches of rain a year, so we could see half that in just a matter of days. Not to mention, we are expecting a storm surge of 2 to 4 feet. That means even more water will push onshore, giving all this rain little place to go.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, so when it creeps, I guess that means a lot of water is kind of being dumped. How are state and local leaders preparing? I mean, they know it's coming, so are they evacuating people?
HANSEN: Yes, so far, no evacuations. But the City of Charleston did enact a curfew last night. Essentially, they closed the peninsula beginning at 11 p.m. until later this morning, when they plan to reassess. Here's Mayor William Cogswell at a press conference last night.
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WILLIAM COGSWELL: For your own safety and the safety of the emergency responders, please, stay indoors. Do not go out. This is a lot of water coming our way and we need to take it very, very seriously.
HANSEN: And it's important to point out, flash flooding is what claims so many lives during these storms. Now high-water rescue vehicles and boats, they are ready in case people do in fact need help. And shelters have opened across the state for those who know their homes flood. Again, city and state leaders are urging people just to stay home.
MARTÍNEZ: So given all that, are people staying home?
HANSEN: Well, fortunately, many businesses are closed. And, yes, people have been preparing, getting supplies and sandbagging their homes. I caught up with Kathy Evans (ph) at a grocery store during a break in the rain yesterday. She's lived in Charleston for nearly 30 years now and she does what many of us do. She prepares for the worst, and she hopes for the best. And she says, absolutely, she is staying home, even if it's for days, until the storm passes.
KATHY EVANS: I don't want to be that person who brings out our very hard-working law enforcement or fire department to save me because I didn't listen, and then they put their lives at risk.
HANSEN: Now, Evans says she does worry about all the new people who have moved to South Carolina recently and the addition of so many new homes. That means there's less open land to absorb all that water.
MARTÍNEZ: Victoria, you're covering this, but you're also experiencing it. What are you worried about?
HANSEN: You know, I worry about the flooding. We had what they called historic floods in 2015, which just dumped a substantial amount of rain on us, more than 20 inches. That time, my back yard probably took in about 3 feet of water.
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, wow.
HANSEN: I checked this morning - that's not the case - but the frogs are very lively, is the only thing I can say.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
HANSEN: It was very, very loud outside my window last night. So, you know, again, I think a lot of us just don't know what to expect. It depends upon how long, you know, the storm kind of hovers over us. And then there's a possibility that it could go back out into the Atlantic and then make landfall again before heading to North Carolina.
MARTÍNEZ: That's South Carolina Public Radio's Victoria Hansen speaking to us from just outside Charleston. Victoria, thank you.
HANSEN: And thank you.
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