Severe Flooding Triggers State Of Emergency In Georgia

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in two of the state’s northwestern counties following torrential rainfall and severe flooding on Sunday that knocked out power and affected the local water supply.

Floodwaters rose in Georgia’s Chattooga County over the weekend as a storm delivered a deluge that prompted a flash flood emergency for the cities of Summerville, Trion and Lyerly. A flash flood warning was also issued for Floyd County, south of Chattooga County.

“This is a life-threatening situation. Seek higher ground now!” the National Weather Service warned with the flash flood emergency. This weather alert is reserved for “exceedingly rare situations when extremely heavy rain is leading to a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage from a flash flood is happening or will happen soon,” according to the service.

Up to 12 inches of rain was estimated to have fallen over the two hard-hit counties, according to Kemp’s executive order.

A boil water notice was issued Sunday for the city of Summerville, one of the cities under the flash flood emergency, due to flash flooding at the Raccoon Creek water treatment plant, one of two in the city. The Summerville News, a local news outlet, added that this includes customers in the city of Menlo as well.

“The water should be boiled for at least one minute after reaching a rolling boil,” city officials said to residents who were looking to use the water to drink, cook or prepare baby food. “Citizens should continue to boil their water until they are notified by their drinking water utility that the water system has been restored to full operation, and that the microbiological quality of the water in the distribution system is safe for human consumption.”

In addition to the boil notice, water could become a critical issue for the two cities in the coming weeks, The Summerville News reported, as water pumps are offline and underwater at the treatment plants. In the comments of the news source’s Facebook post addressing the water situation, people began to list streets in the city where there was either low water pressure or no water at all.

A water tank with drinking water was delivered to the Summerville City Hall Sunday and set up in the parking lot across from the Summerville Fire Department.

Drone footage showed roads transformed into surging rivers and creeks swollen with raging floodwater in Chattooga County. The water invaded homes, washed over bridges and blocked off roads, making travel nearly impossible.

“There is basically just a stagnant weather pattern in place across the eastern third of the U.S. which is triggering daily rounds of drenching showers and thunderstorms,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Reneé Duff said. “Light winds in the atmosphere are causing these storms to not move very much. That, combined with a lot of moisture in the atmosphere, is a recipe for flash flood disasters on the local level. It all depends on where these storms set up and then sit for hours’ time.”

The rain from these storms also delayed the fifth inning of a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins Sunday at Truist Park in Atlanta.

Water levels on the Chattooga River at Summerville began to recede on Monday after reaching moderate flood stage on Sunday. After cresting at 16.78 feet, just 5.82 feet from record level, the Chattooga River had fallen below flood stage by Monday morning. The NWS expects it to fall back to 2.9 feet by Saturday.

The rain isn’t quite finished for the area this week though, with more local rainfall possible.

“There will continue to be a daily risk of downpours from showers and thunderstorms,” Duff said. “Given the pop-up nature of these storms, some days this week may be completely dry, but any additional rain that does fall across the region will be unwelcome for cleanup efforts.”

Produced in association with AccuWeather.com.