Officials in Chattooga County are worried today’s rains may cause a levee to fail near Trion.
Public Works and Emergency management director Lamar Canada said the county is evacuating 300 to 400 people near the levee on the Chattooga River as water from storm has begun spilling over the top of the wall.
“All the rain that’s hitting north of here is all flowing south and it hasn’t crested yet,” Mr. Canada said.
At the Parkview Townhouses on old highway 27, resident Savannah Shockley said she became worried this morning when water began rising in the back yard.
When it rose up above her children’s trampoline, an official told her the power would be cut off. She began making plans to leave.
“It’s just scary,” she said.
Tonight she and 16 other family members will stay at her mother’s house in Summerville.
Residents said the water flowing out of their taps was brown and muddy, and officials were evacuating people to the Pentecostal Worship Center.
Official did not know how many people have been evacuated.
Mr. Canada said the county’s main employer Mount Vernon Mills was already closed this morning. Water has already filled the basement and Mr. Canada expected it to reach the second story this afternoon.
Among the concerns for officials is another band of rain headed their way.
Mr. Canada said the last time the river climbed this high was when the entire down flooded in the early 1990s or late 1980s.
“We’ve just been inundated,” he said.
Andy began working at the Times Free Press in July 2008 as a general assignment reporter before focusing on Northwest Georgia and Georgia politics in May of 2009. Before coming to the Times Free Press, Andy worked for the Anniston Star, the Rome News Tribune and the Campus Carrier at Berry College, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2006. He is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee ...
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