SAVANNAH, Ga. — Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Debby is causing significant damage as trees are coming down in parts of coastal Georgia.
Homeowner Marvin Cooper narrowly escaped injury after a massive willow tree crashed toward his bedroom on Monday night.
“It’s a blessing from God that I’m still alive,” Cooper told Severe Weather Team 2 Meteorologist Brian Monahan.
Cooper said he had just settled into bed when the tree fell.
“The light was already off, but I jumped up when I heard the noise,” he said.
The noise he heard was the sound of a large tree limb crashing down, narrowly missing him.
“The limb went down in the mattress and missed my head by maybe half a foot…when it came down, it barely missed me,” Cooper said.
Despite the heavy rain all day from the storm, Cooper noted that the tree fell when it was relatively calm outside.
“It just happened. There was no wind blowing. The root must have been weak and there was no wind. It just came down from the rain,” Cooper said.
Cooper will be staying with his daughter while waiting to start repairs on his house.
In southern Georgia, especially in Echols County, the aftermath of Debby is also taking a toll on farmers.
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Tobacco farmer Bo Corbett told Channel 2′s Michael Doudna that there is significant damage to his crops.
“Normally, there would be leaves out here, and half the stalk is gone,” Corbett said.
He described how beautiful the field was just a day before the storm and lamented the swift devastation.
“In 24 hours, it’s pretty much destroyed,” Corbett said.
Corbett and his family have farmed tobacco for years, but now, instead of full plants, they see broken stalks and fallen leaves.
“It breaks it down. The plant goes into protective mode, and it will start defoliating itself and protecting itself,” Corbett said.
While Debby’s overall destruction was limited across southern Georgia, the timing of the storm—during the harvesting season—hit farmers particularly hard.
Corbett pointed out that they lost a day of harvesting to Hurricane Idalia and had just a month before Debby struck.
Now they are racing against the clock to salvage what remains before more leaves fall off.
“A lot of money has gone to waste. It breaks your heart,” Corbett said, though he remains hopeful that insurance will cover at least some of the losses.
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