While the remnants of Debby have finished dumping rain on the Big Apple, forecasters are warning that high winds will still continue across the five boroughs through Saturday.
The tropical storm, which triggered tornado and flood warnings in New York City, had nearly passed the capital region by 7:30 p.m., with radar showing its center moving at an “alarming” 38 mph.
Fox Weather meteorologist Christopher Tate said that’s “good news.”
“This means any rainfall in the region will be extremely brief and any flooding will be limited, unlike what we saw earlier this week,” Tait told The Post on Friday.
Rains associated with Debby are expected to continue into the early hours of Saturday, but forecasters have dropped flash flood warnings in the capital region as only light rain fell.
The storm is moving rapidly northeast, and the only remaining danger will be winds lingering in Debby’s wake.
Winds of up to 40 mph were reported across the five boroughs Friday evening, a significant decrease from the 50 mph gusts reported earlier, but still strong enough to cause damage.
“The soil is already saturated from rain earlier this week so there is a risk of trees falling over,” Mr Tait warned.
William Farrington
“The saturated soil is very loose so it doesn’t take that much wind to knock down a few trees here and there, so I’m not surprised to see those reports coming in from the five boroughs, but the good news is the damage won’t be as bad as we think it will be.”
Debbie has all but disappeared from New York, but her influence still wreaks havoc at airports.
Dozens of flights were delayed at both JFK and LaGuardia airports on Friday evening, some for as long as four hours, according to flight statistics.
Even Newark Liberty International Airport, which escaped Deby’s rule before New York City, continued to experience significant delays.
Early Friday morning, LaGuardia Airport issued a full ground suspension due to thunderstorms.
Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane and again in South Carolina on Thursday as a tropical storm.
At least eight people are known to have died as a result of the storm.
