ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (WAVY) — Many areas along the East Coast, including Elizabeth City, are experiencing rain and flooding coming from Tropical Storm Debby.

Brian Parnell, emergency management coordinator for Elizabeth City, said they’ve been tracking three to four inches of rain for the area, as well as some wind gusts.

His team also has been keeping an eye on flooding that’s expected to hit the area on Thursday morning.

That being said, Parnell told 10 On Your Side those conditions are nothing out of the ordinary for the city.

“We experience this every time we have a heavy rain, and it depends on the winds that are coming in at the time of the rain,” Parnell said. “We probably get downtown flooding about once a month. So it’s just a matter of when the rain lets up. It’ll start and the winds shift, it’ll start dying down and the water will start receding.”

Despite his calm attitude about the storm, there was a time when he was slightly worried about the damage it could cause.

“If you look at the path of it over the weekend, yes,” Parnell said. “But I knew that was early on. We hadn’t even got to the Gulf Stream. So it hadn’t even impacted Florida.”

Long-time residents are also not stressed.

Frederick Huff Sr. actually used the rising water to his advantage, calling it peak fishing conditions.

“The water’s a little calm right now,” Huff said. “Right before a storm comes, the water gets a bit calmer. And so, I said I’ll take advantage of it and we’ll see what happens, and luckily, as you can see, I actually got lucky.”

As a long-time resident of Elizabeth City, he remembered many hurricanes that hit the area and how the town prevailed through each one.

“It was hurricane Hugo and Isabel, oh yeah, they did a lot of damage,” Huff said. “Y’all keep naming them and we’ll keep surviving them. That’s what we do.”

Parnell advised residents to know what areas are prone to flooding, stay out of heavy rain and prepare for possible power outages.