by Geoff Fox
The remnants of what started a few days ago in Florida as Hurricane Debby made its way into the Hancock area on Thursday, August 8, and didn’t let up until Friday morning, August 9.
The main concerns in the area were flooding and possible tornadoes, but for the most part, the only issue was the water.
The rain started coming down Thursday afternoon, but nothing very hard. That would be later in the evening.
Around 7 p.m. Thursday night, the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for a number of counties in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia that would run until 7 a.m. Friday morning. Just after 11 p.m. Thursday night, there was a tornado warning issued for the Hancock area, which expired just after 11:30 p.m.
There were calls for downed wires, but that was the extent of the damage. 
On Friday morning, parts of Widmeyer Park were flooded. Hancock Public Works had closed the main entrance to the park off of Main Street and the secondary entrance off of Creek Road. The entrance to Kirkwood Park was also closed as well due to high water.
The northern side of the park, namely the area of the flag football field, was underwater with rapids near the bridge to that area. The bridge had collected a bunch of debris coming down the Little Tonoloway.
On the main park side, the playground near the bridge was flooded and had water running out. One of the pavilions had the picnic tables moved to one side to prevent any loss or damage.
At the Potomac River, there wasn’t much flooding as it was measured at just short of nine feet at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon. It was expected to crest Saturday morning at 22.40 feet, which falls in the “action” stage of the river.
However, that wasn’t the case as the Potomac crested at a meager 10.78 feet around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The gauge at Tonoloway Creek had a reading of 10.15 feet on Friday afternoon around 2:30 p.m.
Town Manager Mike Faith said there was flooding at Kirkwood Park and the bathrooms there were flooded as well.
Prior to the storm, Faith said the town’s Public Works crew had been out clearing storm drains as best they could to prevent and flooding in town.
On Monday, August 12, town crews were removing the debris that had collected along the small bridge in Widmeyer Park.