Gov. Kemp declares emergency in four Georgia counties amid flooding

Gov. Kemp declares emergency in four Georgia counties amid flooding

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Georgia-Tennessee Border Under Water as Rains Trangle Dozens

“I’ve never seen flooding like this in my life,” McCaysville police chief Michael Earley told local TV station WSMV, describing a scene where water rose six to seven feet high. His community, and the town of Copperhill, Tennessee just across the Toccoa River, was deluged with up to five inches of rain late Wednesday and into Thursday morning, triggering life-threatening flash flooding, The Guardian reported.

The situation, as described by the National Weather Service, was unequivocal. “This is a particularly dangerous situation. Seek higher ground now!” the agency warned in a flash flood notice that remained in effect until mid-morning Thursday. The directive was blunt and urgent: “Turn around, don’t drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.”

A Multi-State Emergency Response

Georgia governor Brian Kemp declared official emergencies in four counties on Thursday afternoon, a move that releases extra public resources to deal with the conditions. Earlier in the morning, he had announced that the state’s emergency management agency was leading a “multi-agency response… using both aviation and boat assets, as well as local counties and Tennessee first responders.”

“More than 30 people had been rescued by boats by mid-morning,” Chief Earley said, with one local report later putting the number of water rescues above 50. One particularly harrowing effort involved a man trapped in his car after being swept away down a creek. “We currently have a crew looking for a vehicle,” Robert Poole, a Fannin county emergency management spokesperson, told WSMV. “A gentleman called in, said he was swept away in his car down a creek… We lost communications with him. They have, I guess, an address now and the gentleman is still trapped in the vehicle, so they’re trying to make their way to him and safely get him out of the vehicle.”

Poole added that the county’s resources were already stretched thin from several structure fires that coincided with the storm’s lightning, creating a cascade of emergencies. “We … already had our resources kind of stretched thin from several structure fires that happened, kind of just all at one time when the lightning moved in… And then as the rain continued to fall, these water rescues followed the structure fires.”

“Please do not let the rain stopping give you a false sense of security,” the agency said on social media. “Floodwaters remain extremely dangerous, and conditions can continue to worsen even after the rain has stopped.”

The flooding made residential streets impassable in Fannin county, Georgia, and prompted school closures for students in Fannin and Gilmer county schools due to hazardous road conditions. Across the border in Copperhill, Tennessee, city officials issued evacuation warnings for some residents at 3am ET on Thursday.

Residents Warned of Flood Dangers

The Georgia emergency management agency warned residents that the threat was far from over. “Please do not let the rain stopping give you a false sense of security,” the agency said on social media, adding: “Floodwaters remain extremely dangerous, and conditions can continue to worsen even after the rain has stopped.”

The agency also issued a boil water advisory for McCaysville, a standard precaution when municipal water systems are compromised by floodwater. Game wardens with the Georgia department of natural resources were brought in to assist state and local first responders with search-and-rescue operations in Fannin and Murray counties, indicating the complexity and scale of the ongoing effort.

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