Two Northeast Alabama counties that share an often-flooded and deadly crossing on a creek in Buck’s Pocket State Park are working on an agreement to install permanent gates to try to prevent drownings.
South Sauty Creek flows through the state park in a deep, dark gorge that offers only one primary crossing for vehicles within park boundaries. That crossing – DeKalb County Road 173 on one side of the creek and Jackson County Road 452 on the other – consists of a low road over a row of concrete tiles designed to allow flood water to flow over the road when it rains heavily, according to officials.
The problem is that when the water flows over the road, people still try to cross, sometimes with fatal consequences.
Northeast Alabama State Parks district superintendent Michael Jeffreys said in February that officials in Jackson and DeKalb counties started working on a plan for installing the gates after 82-year-old Scottsboro, Alabama, resident Raymond Edwards was swept away at the South Sauty Creek crossing in surging waters on Feb. 5.
Less than a year before, 18-year-old Geraldine, Alabama, resident Koy Spears and two others tried to cross the flooded crossing in a Jeep that was swept away. The other two people managed to escape and cling to a tree until they were rescued about an hour later. The trio encountered flood waters that came with the record-setting deluge in February 2019.