Any parent knows how expensive and necessary it is to buy diapers for their children, but there’s a larger conversation to be had about the very real impact of parents not being able to afford diapers.

Now, there’s help for some families thanks to the Diaper Bank of North Carolina.

Venessa Diaz is a young mom with three kids, but she’s smiling more easily these days knowing what her family has overcome.

When her son Raul was two years old, he was hospitalized with acute pancreatitis. Beyond the emotional and financial stress, Venessa worried how she was going to get enough diapers to cover all of her children.

“It was a lot, and without the diaper bank, I don’t think we would have made it through that time,” Diaz said. “I feel like it really just took a lot of pressure off at a time where we were most vulnerable.”

There’s no government assistance for diapers, and they’re not covered by WIC or food stamps — the cost adds up.

“Families are literally making choices between buying food or buying diapers and every single time, they will choose to feed their children and try to make those diapers lasts as long as they can,” said Michelle Schaefer-Old, the founder of the Diaper Bank of North Carolina. “So we’re seeing babies left in one diaper a day, families rinsing out and reusing diapers.”

Schaefer-Old started the bank in the Durham area in 2013. In 2022, they opened a warehouse in Charlotte.

“People are not aware that the need is there. Because it’s embarrassing to talk about,” she said.

About 76% of the families served by the diaper bank work one to three jobs, and they still can’t afford basic hygiene items like diapers.

Diaz told Channel 9′s Elsa Gillis she wouldn’t have been able to work if she didn’t have a diaper supply to drop off with her child.

“Because if you don’t have diapers there, [day care] won’t take your kid,” she said.

All of these years later, the commitment remains to spreading the word that help is available.

“It comes down to dignity, and dignity should not be a privilege,” Schaefer-Old said.

You can get more information about the Diaper Bank of North Carolina at this link.

(VIDEO: Iredell County organization works with local businesses to provide diapers for struggling families)

Tropical Storm Debby made its second landfall Thursday morning, moving into South Carolina and beginning its still-slow trek into North Carolina.

Once inland, the storm picked up some speed as predicted. At 8 a.m., it was about 65 miles north-northwest of Myrtle Beach and moving to the north-northwest at about 7 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

There is widespread risk of flash flooding, and some tornadoes are possible.

How much more rain can Debby bring?

The storm is expected to drop an additional 3 to 6 inches of rain across southeastern North Carolina through Friday, with locally higher amounts, forecasters say, bringing rainfall totals as high as 15 inches in some places.

The bulk of the remaining rainfall will come Thursday, forecasters say.

How strong are Debby’s winds?

The storm had maximum sustained winds of about 45 mph Thursday morning, with higher gusts.

The storm is expected to weaken some through the day Thursday, while also picking up forward speed.

By Friday, Debby should be downgraded to a tropical depression, forecasters say.

Since Debby’s rains have saturated the ground in most places, trees are likely to fall and some will take power lines with them.

Duke Energy reported more than 100,000 customers without power from Charlotte to the coast as of Thursday morning.

When will the storm be gone?

The center of Tropical Storm Debby is expected to pass through the middle of North Carolina Thursday and Thursday night. The center of the storm is expected to move into Virginia early Friday morning.

Central North Carolina will continue to see some effects of the storm Friday, with some showers and breezy conditions with wind gusts up to 21 mph.

Rainfall totals on Friday should be less than a half-inch expected in areas of strong thunderstorms.

Sunny skies should return on Saturday.

▪ NC residents can use this real-time tool to search where stream flooding is likely

▪ As Tropical Storm Debby arrives, NCDOT reports numerous flooded and blocked roads

▪ Check Tropical Storm Debby weather conditions in the Raleigh area with these live cams

▪ Debby is mostly likely to flood these spots in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill

HUGER, S.C. — HUGER, S.C. (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby has made a second landfall in South Carolina on its way up the East Coast, where residents as far north as Vermont could get several inches of rain this weekend.

The National Hurricane Center says Debby came ashore early Thursday near Bulls Bay, South Carolina. The storm is expected to keep moving inland, spreading heavy rain and possible flooding all the way up through the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast by the weekend.

Debby first made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It is now a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds at 50 mph (80 kph).

Considerable flooding is expected across parts of eastern South Carolina and southeast North Carolina through Friday, with an additional 3 to 9 inches (8 to 23 centimeters) of rain forecast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Days of rain have forced the deluge-hardened residents of a South Carolina community to begin the near-ritualistic task of assessing damage left behind by Debby, which continued spinning over the Atlantic Ocean and influencing thunderstorms from the East Coast to the Great Lakes on Wednesday. The National Weather Service’s office in Charleston also said survey teams confirmed four-Debby related tornadoes.

In Huger, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of Charleston, Gene Taylor was waiting in the afternoon for a few inches of water to drain from his house along French Quarter Creek as high tide passed.

Taylor saw the potential for flooding last week and started moving belongings out or up higher in his home. It’s a lesson learned the hard way — Taylor estimated that this is the fourth time he has had floodwater in his home in the past nine years.

“To save everything, we’ve learned from the past it’s better be prepared for the worst. And unfortunately, I think we got it,” Taylor said.

A few doors down, Charles Grainger was cleaning up after about 8 inches (20 centimeters) of water got into his home.

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

In Georgia, at least four dams were breached northwest of Savannah in Bulloch County, but no deaths had been reported, authorities said at a briefing.

More than 75 people were rescued from floodwaters in the county, said Corey Kemp, director of emergency management, and about 100 roads were closed.

“We’ve been faced with a lot of things we’ve never been faced with before,” Bulloch County Commission Chairman Roy Thompson said. “I’m 78-plus years old and have never seen anything like this before in Bulloch County. It’s amazing what has happened, and amazing what is going to continue to happen until all these waters get out of here.”

For residents on Tappan Zee Drive in suburban Pooler, west of Savannah, Georgia, the drenching that Debby delivered came with a painful dose of déjà vu. In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew overflowed a nearby canal and flooded several of the same homes.

Located roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, with no creeks or rivers nearby, the neighborhood doesn’t seem like a high-risk location for tropical flooding. But residents say drainage problems have plagued their street for well over a decade, despite local government efforts to fix them.

Debby also dumped rain on communities all the way up to the Great Lakes and New York and New Jersey. Moisture from the tropical storm strengthened another system Tuesday evening, which caused strong thunderstorms, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Kleebauer.

“We had a multi-round period of showers and thunderstorms that kind of scooted from Michigan eastward,” Kleebauer said.

As much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of New Jersey in less than four hours.

Emergency officials in New York City warned of potential flash flooding, flying drones with loudspeakers in some neighborhoods to tell people in basement apartments to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Multiple water rescues were reported in and near the city.

Nearly 330,000 customers remained without power in Ohio as of Wednesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us, following severe storms including two confirmed tornadoes. Utility officials with FirstEnergy’s Illuminating Company said via social media that power restoration would take days due to the damage.

In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster said his state was just entering Act 2 of a three-act play, after more than 60 homes were damaged but roads and water systems were without significant problems.

The final act may come next week if enough rain falls upstream in North Carolina to cause major flooding along rivers as they flow to the Atlantic Ocean.

A state of emergency was in effect for both North Carolina and Virginia. Maryland issued a state of preparedness declaration that coordinates preparations without declaring an emergency.

At least six people have died due to the storm, five of them in traffic accidents or from fallen trees. The sixth death involved a 48-year-old man in Gulfport, Florida, whose body was recovered after his anchored sailboat partially sank. ___ This story has been updated to remove an incorrect reference to total rainfall amounts for the Carolinas.

___

Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press journalists Russ Bynum in Pooler, Georgia; Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; Jeff Martin in Atlanta, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed.