People were out and about on beaches despite the impending tropical storm on Aug. 7, but by the evening, that was starting to change, according to AccuWeather's Tony Laubach.
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00:00Our team coverage begins this afternoon and evening here with AccuWeather meteorologist
00:04and storm chaser Tony Lawback.
00:05Tony, you're in Pawleys Island, you're well positioned for this one, I know, and what's
00:11your game plan for landfall tonight?
00:14Well, Jeff, we're basically going to hunker down in Georgetown, I've literally practiced
00:23this line for the last hour, but it's Georgetown.
00:25That's where we're going to be heading for tonight.
00:27The reason we're choosing that particular area, this is a very wide center of circulation.
00:34This is not the typical, we've got the closed eyewall and that's where you kind of head.
00:38We're banking a little further to the north because these winds are going to be much more
00:42spread out.
00:43Georgetown, one of the bigger population centers, kind of in the landfall zone, that is going
00:48to be the direction that we are going to head for the remainder of this evening.
00:51In fact, starting at 7 o'clock, we will be bringing you updates from Georgetown where
00:55we will be stationed for the duration of the evening while we wait Debbie to make
00:59her second landfall here in the States.
01:01But today, today was about getting out and enjoying what you could of the weather.
01:06I want to show you some video there of the beach because it was not the prettiest of
01:09weather out there.
01:10The winds were howling at times, we had squally conditions, and it kind of was squally in
01:14the morning, then as we got into the early afternoon, we had more sunshine than we actually
01:19did squalls, and then that turned around as we got into the later part of the afternoon,
01:23we saw more scenes looking like this.
01:26But that did not stop folks, particularly vacationers, from getting out and enjoying
01:31it.
01:32We talked earlier with a gentleman who I would easily say was a kid at heart, but we also
01:36talked to the true kids that were out there enjoying the weather.
01:40It's been okay.
01:43Every now and again we get these little breaks and like sometimes though, waves come up here
01:49and it's good for us to skimboard and just have fun.
01:53It's been pretty manageable, but sometimes the waves are like overlapped on top of each
01:57other and it's hard to like go out and stuff.
02:03I gotta give that kid a lot of credit, man.
02:05He was more articulate than I typically am when I do live hits, but he was out getting
02:10out with his folks and enjoying that with the family.
02:13We saw a lot of families out there trying to get in as much beach time ahead of today
02:18as possible.
02:19We're going to bring you back live here because I want to bring your attention here to Highway
02:2417.
02:25Notice there's not a whole lot of traffic here.
02:27We've really seen the amount of people out and about drop dramatically over the last
02:32hour or so.
02:33So I think everybody kind of wrapping up their festivities.
02:35Despite this, honestly, when you factor in the wind, you factor in the rain, all the
02:39squalls we've dealt with, this has really been the calmest that I have seen it really
02:44all day.
02:45Probably actually in the last several days for sure.
02:47So everybody taking the calm in the storm, the calm before the storm to get themselves
02:52into their safe places.
02:53Hunker down.
02:54Like I said, we're going to be coming to you live from Georgetown just a little bit south
02:58of here later on today.
02:59And we're going to be awaiting Debbie once again tonight.
03:02All right.
03:03Thanks for that report there, Tony, 7.05 p.m.
03:06We're looking forward to your next update there at 8 from a little farther south.
03:11And we have had some flood reports in some parts of South Carolina.
03:14We could take it down into Charleston.
03:16Charleston, you haven't seen a whole lot of heavy rain today.
03:19You had a lot of rain yesterday.
03:22But right now, pretty slim traffic.
03:24Not much to see out there.
03:26This is the Ravenel Bridge along U.S. 17.
03:30And there have been some reports, Isle of Palms seeing some reports of roadway flooding
03:34there, up into Hadley Hill reports of flooding.
03:37I really wanted to draw your attention a little farther north, though.
03:39I'm going to hop up into parts of eastern North Carolina.
03:43We had a report of a confirmed tornado.
03:45Two homes damaged today.
03:46Happened at 2.19 p.m. in Harrells.
03:49That's in Sampson County, tied to a tornado that was embedded within one of these fierce
03:54little squalls that the hurricane or the tropical storm, tropical storm, Debbie has brought.
03:59And also reports of a tornado there with debris on Highway 53 into Pender County.
04:04So appears to be that we saw two tornadoes today in southern North Carolina.
04:08So far, there could be more.
04:11Flash flooding continues into Wilmington and Brunswick County and into Columbus in Columbus
04:15County there in the Whitefield area, too.
04:17Some of the steadiest rain is hammering areas north of Myrtle Beach.