ROCKINGHAM — Three roads in Richmond County are at least partially closed after a band from Tropical Storm Debby dropped several inches of rain across the area.
The eastbound lane of U.S. 74 Business in Rockingham was closed late Thursday morning from the intersection with U.S. 1 to Mial Street in front of Food Lion.
According to Emergency Services Director Bob Smith, Sides Road and Hamer Creek Road in the northwestern corner of the county (Mount Gilead address) are also closed.
“We have also received calls about some standing water on numerous roads throughout the county, but they are not impassable,” Smith told the RO in an email at 10:48 a.m.
Since midnight, Emergency Services received 16 reports of trees down, and seven calls of utility lines down, according to Smith.
The director also said the five-day rain total at a station in Marston has recorded 5.5 inches of rain.
Ellerbe farmer Lee Berry said his gauges recorded 5.2 inches overnight at the Berry Patch at 6 a.m. and 4.3 inches at his farm on Greenlake Road at noon. A half-inch had fallen at the farm since 6 a.m.
RO contributor Betty Gallo McIntyre posted a photo Thursday morning of her 8-inch rain gauge having overflowed just north of Cordova.
Between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 11 a.m. Thursday, Hitchcock Creek had risen at least three feet and was at the bottom of the bridge.
Another inch of rain is expected throughout the day.
Richmond County remains under a flash flood warning until 2 p.m. Thursday and a flood watch until 9 p.m. Friday.
The 11 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center indicated that the center of the storm was located just west-southwest of Society Hill, South Carolina, moving north-northwest near 10 mph.
“The storm is expected to accelerate toward the north across central North Carolina through tonight,” reads the advisory. “Debby is then expected to move faster toward the northeast across the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Friday and Atlantic Canada on Saturday.”
According to the NHC, maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 40 mph with higher gusts. The storm is expected to be downgraded to a tropical depression later in the day.
As of 11:53 a.m., Duke Energy had more than 115,000 customers across the Carolinas without power, the majority in North Carolina, including 376 in Richmond County. There was no restoration time listed.
At one point during the night, most of the outages were in Bladen, Robeson, Cumberland, Moore and Richmond counties.
Pee Dee Electric was reporting 36 customers were affected in Richmond County, 882 in Anson County, 579 in Stanly County, 76 in Union County and four in Moore County.
District and Child Support courts in Richmond County are closed Thursday, according to Judge Amy Wilson.
