BENNETTSVILLE, S.C. (WBTW) — A South Carolina senator encouraged residents who live near the Lake Paul Wallace Dam to evacuate their homes and stay safe after Tropical Storm Debby rolled through the Pee Dee following another breach.

State Sen. Gerald Malloy and Lake Paul Wallace Authority Chairman Sully Blair said emergency management services already helped residents evacuate their homes and seek shelter because the dam’s water levels rose Thursday morning.

Bennettsville Mayor Leith Fowler said he’s thankful the city only received between two and five inches of rain as opposed to 15. But Crooked Creek, next to the main breach of the Lake Paul Wallace Dam, already has more water than it can hold and the dam’s water levels rose quickly.

Malloy said the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has been working tirelessly to protect residents from Debby flooding and to eventually repair the main breach of the dam.

Malloy said he’s hoping the dam repairs will be added to the 2025-2026 DNR budget and he’s confident Bennettsville will overcome the effects of the dam’s main breach.

“This lake has been here for a long time. This county has been here for a longer period of time, and obviously, there’s work to be done,” Malloy said. “This is a little hiccup that we have to do. God is blessing us right now because we don’t have the rain we thought we were going to have. And we got some more work to end up doing. There will be flooding, but there will be people there that will be caretakers of those that are in need.”

Blair said the city of Bennettsville expects more rain from North Carolina. He and Malloy encouraged Marlboro County residents who live near the dam to evacuate their homes and seek shelter at Marlboro County High School to avoid heavy flooding.

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Skylar Musick is a multimedia journalist at News13. Skylar is originally from Long Island, New York. She joined the News13 team in June 2024 after graduating from Villanova University in May 2024. Follow Skylar on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and read more of her work here.

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CHEROKEE COUNTY, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – Storm damage from Debby has been reported across the Palmetto state.

Cherokee County Emergency Management said they have several reports of trees and powerlines down in the area Thursday.

Officials said they also have reports of a tree on a house on Montgomery Drive.

In the video below, flooding can been seen near a house in Florence.

Lake View Motor Speedway in Nichols announced on Facebook they will not be having any racing due to the race track being washed out with water up to the picnic table benches.

Stay with FOX Carolina as we work to learn more.

Copyright 2024 WHNS. All rights reserved.

Tropical Storm Debby — which has been drenching parts of the Southeast after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region earlier this week — made a second landfall, in South Carolina, bringing with it more heavy rain and the threat of severe flooding, forecasters say.

Where is the storm, exactly?

According to an update from the National Hurricane Center on Thursday, Debby was slowly churning in the Atlantic about 65 miles off the South Carolina coast.

• Location: 90 miles north of Charleston, S.C.

• Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph

• Present movement: Northwest at 7 mph

The storm is expected to accelerate across South Carolina and North Carolina Thursday before moving through the mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Friday, NHC forecasters say.

What are the biggest risks associated with Debby?

Rain and storm surge, forecasters say.

Debby is expected to produce an additional 3 to 9 inches of rainfall with locally higher amounts, leading to maximum storm total amounts as high as 25 inches in parts of the Carolinas through Friday.

In addition, the “combination of storm surge and tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the hurricane center said.

Where is the greatest risk for flooding right now?

Along the Carolina coast, the water level could reach 1 to 3 feet above ground “if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide,” the hurricane center warned.

What other areas could see impacts from Tropical Storm Debby?

Debby is expected to merge with a frontal boundary over the mid-Atlantic on Friday, bringing heavy rain and the potential for flash flooding from Virginia to Vermont through the weekend.