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What is normally a creek running peacefully along Hwy 152 in Faith became a much larger stream as Debby passed through Rowan County Thursday morning. The storm caused high water, downed trees and power lines and power outages, but in many ways was not as severe as storms in the past have been. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci

Water picked up speed as the levels rose in Faith Thursday morning. Debby dropped huge amounts of rain on the county during the morning hours before taking a few short breaks. Waters will continue to rise for the next two days before cresting then subsiding, say officials. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci

A tree knocked down a power line on Shaver Street in East Spencer during the morning's storm Thursday. Duke Power was kept busy trying to get crews out to make repairs and restore service throughout the day. Photo by Eisabeth Strillacci

The tree on a side street that pulled down power lines along the side of South Main Street in Granite Quarry, leaving one street closed and drivers on South Main having to exercise caution passing. Tropical Storm Debby downed numerous trees as it passed through Rowan Thursday. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci

A utility pole broke in half after a tree pulled the lines down so hard it snapped the wood on South Main Street in Granite Quarry. A side street was closed and drivers were encouraged to use caution passing through. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci

Tropical storm Debby set her sights on Rowan County overnight Wednesday into Thursday, and by daylight the calls were beginning to roll in to emergency services as the rain and wind began to pick up.

While not as severe as some had predicted, the at times heavy rains combined with wind gusts meant trees came down, blocking roads and often taking down power lines as they fell. Culverts and drains often were unable to handle the large quantities of water and roadways had flash flooding and ponding, making driving difficult on some roads, and creeks and streams overflowed their banks.

Old Beatty Ford Road in Rockwell at one point had two feet of water washing across it and the roadway was closed for a time, and not long after three a portion of Faith Road had to be blocked as water crested and began washing across the street.

Earlier in the morning, a particular call elicited a massive response from firefighters, police and emergency services when a mother on Shive Road reported her two children, ages 2 and 4, had been playing outside but she feared they might have fallen or wandered into the creek. At that time, the water was far above the creek bed and in some areas was moving rapidly.

Fortunately the children were found, wet but safe, and taken back to mom to get into dry clothes.

But the calls continued to come regarding fire alarms, wires down causing power outages, trees down and as of 3 p.m. Duke Energy was still reporting more than 8,000 without power in the county. The areas of Rockwell, Granite Quarry, Gold Hill and even China Grove had the highest numbers of outages.

Before noon, Spencer Fire Chief Michael Lanning said things in Spencer weren’t “bad, just trying to not float away,” but his department was still responding to calls. East Spencer also suffered slightly less impact from the storm.

Salisbury firefighters had repeated calls for service, one after another, from mid-morning into mid-afternoon, as did numerous other departments throughout the county, and departments in those harder hit towns were barely clearing one call before going to another, sometimes even pulling an apparatus off one call to head to another, but they managed to get it all done.

Rowan County Emergency Services Chief Allen Cress said the day was perhaps not as bad as some other storms have been, but high water was the overriding concern.

“The oddity was the places we had high water that we usually don’t,” he said. “Old Beatty Ford Road, Sunset Drive, St. Stevens Church Road, those are places we don’t usually see water across the road.” He noted that Friday and Saturday will be the “tell tale days with the water levels and damage that we didn’t see today.”

Numerous businesses decided to close for the day, telling employees not to risk traveling in heavy rains and wind that could make driving dangerous. School openings were postponed along with community and private events, and people were encouraged to stay at home if at all possible.

Debby spawned at least three tornadoes in North Carolina including in Lucama, Wilson County and Snow Hill, and rainfall totals across the state surpassed a foot by early Thursday afternoon. In addition, residents are reminded that waters will continue to rise after the storm moves out of the area and on into Virginia Friday. Waters can take days to crest before beginning to recede. Bladenboro was completely cut off from surrounding towns by floodwaters.

Residents should be aware that the forecast for the days following Debby call for higher than normal temperatures, and hydration is essential, particularly if power is still out.