Beyond heartbreaking: Upstate NY communities assess damage left by Debbys drenching rains [Video]

By DAVID SHARP, MICHAEL HILL, MARK SCOLFORO and PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press

Debby finally moved out of the U.S. on Saturday after the storm spent the better part of a week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and taking lives as it moved up the East Coast after first arriving in Florida as a hurricane.

Debby’s last day over the U.S. before blowing into Canada inundated south-central New York and north-central Pennsylvania with rain, prompting evacuations and rescues by helicopter. The post-tropical cyclone continued dropping rain on New England and southern Quebec, Canada, on Friday night with conditions expected to improve Saturday morning as the system continued moving northeast.

Some of the worst flash flooding in New York on Friday happened in villages and hamlets in a largely rural area south of the Finger Lakes.

In Steuben County, which borders Pennsylvania, officials ordered the evacuation of the towns of Jasper, …