David Glenn

FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. — Meredith Putnam had a plan if the stormwater slowly creeping toward her home Tuesday night washed through her front door — propping up her furniture on wooden planks.

“I really hope it stays where it is,” said Ms. Putnam, who lives in the low-lying Battlewood Apartments.

On the other side of the apartment complex, her neighbors weren’t so lucky. Residents were pushed out as water swept into their apartments, she said.

The Battlewood situation came after hours of pelting rains swamped the region. Dark, wet clouds dumped about 3 inches of rain in the Chattanooga and North Georgia areas Tuesday.

Since Dec. 1, rains have been heavy in Northwest Georgia, with Chatsworth receiving more than 8 inches, LaFayette seeing more than 11 and Rome getting 91/2.

After a couple of years of serious drought, the soggy finish of 2008 and start to 2009 is taking a major bite out of the drought, leading one meteorologist to sound the death knell of the drought in Northwest Georgia.

Brian Lynn, meteorologist at the weather service office in Peachtree City, Ga., drove a nail into the drought’s coffin and said its final demise in the Tri-State region should come in two weeks when an updated drought monitor map is released.

“Probably for all intents, the drought is over for Northwest Georgia,” he said.

And it’s over like gangbusters. Around 3 p.m. Tuesday, parts of Dade and Walker counties in Georgia and DeKalb County, Ala., were placed under a brief tornado warning while much of North Alabama was under a flash flood warning.

“This rain is something we haven’t dealt with in a while,” said David Glenn, chief meteorologist for WTVC-TV NewsChannel 9. “We just have to reacquaint ourselves with getting around in this sort of weather.”