2 killed, 1 missing as storms drench Southeast

[samanthajane13]

By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press Writer Kate Brumback, Associated Press Writer – 14 mins ago

ATLANTA – At least two people died in floodwaters in Georgia and a Tennessee man was missing after swimming into an overflowing ditch on a dare as rows of thunderstorms drenched the Southeast, submerging some major highways in the Atlanta area and prompting flood warnings Monday.

Forecasters issued flood alerts for parts of Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia as more rain fell after days of storms that have saturated the ground. As much as 20 inches had fallen in three days in the Atlanta metro area.

The "persistent tropical system" that has been hovering over the region for the last week could dump another four inches on north Georgia overnight Monday with isolated areas possibly seeing even higher rainfall levels, said National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Taylor. Rains were expected to taper off starting Wednesday, he said.

Rescuers in Tennessee were searching for a Chattanooga man who was swept into a culvert Sunday after boasting to friends and relatives that he could swim across a flooded ditch alongside his house for $5. The man's nephew identified him as 46-year-old Sylvester Kitchens.

Firefighters rescued another man who also tried to swim the ditch, Albert Miller. Miller was found clinging to a fence in the water near where the water empties into the culvert, said Fire Department spokesman Bruce Garner. Miller was taken to the hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.

The nephew, 22-year-old Leslie Townsend, said Kitchens was swept away when he tried to grab onto a garden hose that Townsend threw to him.

Emergency workers in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville found a woman dead in her sunken vehicle after it was swept off a road by flooding Monday, said Capt. Thomas Rutledge of the Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services. He had no further information about the woman.

"In my 22 years in the fire department here in Gwinnett we have not experienced flooding to this degree," Rutledge aid.

One of the hardest-hit areas is Douglas County west of Atlanta, which forecasters say was hit by as much as a foot of rain during the deluge. The rains blocked more than 45 roads in the county and caused the death of a man whose body was found downstream after his car was swept from the road into a creek, said county spokesman Wes Tallon.

He said emergency officials have rescued dozens of people stranded in their homes and cars by rising waters.

"We're using everything we can get our hands on," Tallon said. "Everything from boats to Jet Skis to ropes to ladders."

By midday Monday, authorities were shifting from rescue mode to damage assessment, Rutledge said, but he added that they were bracing for the possibility of more problems as more storms were expected to move into the area.

In Kentucky, thunderstorms dumped about 4 inches of rain on parts of Louisville in a single day Sunday. Flash flooding caused fire and rescue personnel to make more than a dozen runs to assist people stranded in vehicles, said Louisville fire department spokesman Sgt. Salvador Melendez. A fire that broke out Sunday night at an apartment complex appeared to be caused by lightning, Melendez said. A firefighter suffered burns to his neck, he said.

Flooding in more than 20 counties in western North Carolina closed roads, delayed school and forced evacuations.

The rolling storms shut down school systems in five north Georgia counties. Water also flooded homes, washed out some roads and left standing pools on some busy metro Atlanta highways.

Flash flood watches were issued Monday for much of Alabama, where the National Weather Service said as much as a foot of rain fell in less than 24 hours in some northern parts of the state. School officials in Bibb County, about 50 miles southwest of Birmingham, called off classes for fear their 3,600 students wouldn't be able to get home later Monday.

Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency says the rains caused a mudslide that blocked part of Stone Mountain Freeway east of Atlanta. She urged residents to stay home if they don't have to drive.

Trisha Palmer of the National Weather Service says that as much as 20 inches of rain has fallen on the metro Atlanta area since Friday. She said parts of Douglas and Carroll counties have received more than a foot of rain in the last day alone. As of 8 a.m. Monday, Chattanooga had received 4.93 inches of rain in 24 hours.

___

Associated Press Writers Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and Randall Dickerson in Nashville contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_re_us/us_heavy_rain_southeast

[samanthajane13]

Storms flood Southeast, killing 3, leave 5 missing
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Writer – 17 mins ago

ATLANTA – Floodwaters that swept across the rain-soaked Southeast killed at least three people and left five others missing Monday, including a Georgia toddler who disappeared after a mobile home was split apart by a swollen creek.

Three Georgia motorists died when their vehicles were swept off Atlanta-area roads, and some major highways were submerged. Officials urged motorists to stay off the roads as a new line of storms threatened the area.

Fast-moving water also swept away a Tennessee man who went swimming in an overflowing ditch on a dare.

Crews in northwest Georgia worked furiously to shore up a levee that had been breached and was in danger of failing along the Chattooga River. Hundreds were evacuated in the small town of Trion, and inmate crews were piling sandbags along the levee wall.

"It's a grave situation for us," said Lamar Canada, Chattooga County's emergency management director.

Forecasters issued flood alerts for parts of Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia as more rain fell after days of storms that have saturated the ground. As many as 20 inches had fallen in three days in parts of the Atlanta area.

School closings and delays occurred in parts of Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama.

The "persistent tropical system" that has been hovering over the region for the last week could dump another four inches on north Georgia overnight Monday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Taylor. Rains were expected to taper off starting Wednesday.

Rescuers in Tennessee were searching for a Chattanooga man swept into a culvert Sunday after boasting that he could swim across a flooded ditch alongside his house for $5. The man's nephew identified him as 46-year-old Sylvester Kitchens.

Firefighters rescued another man who also tried to swim the ditch. Albert Miller was found clinging to a fence in the water near where the water empties into the culvert, said Fire Department spokesman Bruce Garner. Miller was taken to the hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.

The nephew, 22-year-old Leslie Townsend, said Kitchens was swept away when he tried to grab onto a garden hose that Townsend threw to him.

Emergency workers in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville found a woman dead in her vehicle after it was swept off a road by flooding Monday, said Capt. Thomas Rutledge of the Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services. The woman was identified as Seydi Burciaga, 39, who was returning home from work.

"In my 22 years in the fire department here in Gwinnett we have not experienced flooding to this degree," Rutledge said.

West of Atlanta, Douglas County was hit by as much as a foot of rain. Flooding blocked more than 45 roads in the county and caused two deaths in separate accidents. A man's body was found after his car was swept into a creek, while a woman's body was found elsewhere after floodwaters washed out the road she was driving on, said county spokesman Wes Tallon. Neither was identified.

Tallon said rescuers were searching for three others who were in the woman's car.

He said emergency officials have rescued dozens of people stranded in their homes and cars.

"We're using everything we can get our hands on," Tallon said. "Everything from boats to Jet Skis to ropes to ladders."

Authorities in next-door Carroll County scoured the area for a toddler who went missing at around 4 a.m. after the storms dumped more than a foot of rain in the area, said Carroll County Emergency Management Director Tim Padgett.

"I've never seen rain like this before — even when a hurricane came through in '04," said Carroll County resident Elizabeth King, adding that a neighbor had water rushing through the yard. "I've never seen anything like this before and I've lived here my whole life — 35 years."

In Kentucky, rescue crews went on more than a dozen runs to help stranded people after 4 inches of rain fell on parts of Louisville Sunday, said Louisville fire department spokesman Sgt. Salvador Melendez.

Water rose as high as window-level on some houses in North Carolina's Polk County, forcing emergency officials to evacuate homes along a seven-mile stretch of road. Flooding in more than 20 counties in western North Carolina closed roads, delayed school and forced evacuations.

___

Associated Press Writers Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Kate Brumback in Carrollton, Ga., Johnny C. Clark in Trion, Ga., Errin Haines in Atlanta and Randall Dickerson in Nashville contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_re_us/us_heavy_rain_southeast


My prayers for those lost and condolences for those mourning their family members.

God is with you.

[samanthajane13]

Toddler among 6 killed as storms pound Southeast
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Writer – 56 mins ago

ATLANTA – Surging floodwaters ripped apart a west Georgia trailer home, drowning a 2-year-old boy swept from his father's arms. In Atlanta, stranded motorists scrambled to the tops of their car as waters rose on one of the city's busiest highways. To the north, crews worked furiously to shore up a levee holding a surging river back from an isolated town.

Storms that pounded the Southeast on Monday turned sleepy creeks into rivers, and rivers into raging floodwaters. Six people were killed across the region, including five in the Atlanta area. Aerial shots showed schools, football fields, even entire neighborhoods submerged by the deluge, sending some unlucky residents scurrying for higher ground.

"It's a mess all over," said Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

At least two people were missing, including a Tennessee man who went swimming in an overflowing ditch on a $5 dare and a 15-year-old Georgia teen who never returned from a swim in the surging Chattooga River.

The storm came after days of rain pounded most of the region and saturated the soil. Some parts of Georgia have had more than 20 inches since Friday.

"Any rain that fell has no place to go," said Georgia climatologist David Stooksbury. "This rainfall on top of already saturated soils really made the situation worse."

Many parts of north Georgia have experienced "historic" amounts of rain well in excess of so-called 100-year predictions, which describe a storm with the likelihood of happening once every century, said Stooksbury. The downpours come just months after much of the region emerged from an epic drought that plagued the region since 2007.

As the storm front rumbled through west Georgia, it turned a normally docile creek into a surging headwater that tore apart 2-year-old Preston Slade Crawford's mobile home around 2 a.m. The boy's body wasn't found until hours later, but his parents had been rescued as another son, age 1, clung to his mother's arms in the county west of Atlanta.

"By the time we got into our vehicle, they were screaming at the back of our house," said Pat Crawford, the boy's grandmother, who watched as the family's mobile home was whisked away. "We could see them, but the current was so bad, we couldn't get to them."

Crawford said she was on higher ground, unable to help her family members. Craig Crawford clung to his 2-year-old son, but the boy was pulled away in a strong undercurrent.

To the northwest, crews in the tiny Georgia town of Trion worked to shore up a levee breached by the Chattooga River and in danger of failing. The town evacuated more than 1,500 residents, and Red Cross workers quickly set up an emergency shelter able to help hundreds nearby.

"It's a grave situation for us," said Lamar Canada, Chattooga County's emergency management director.

Most of the dead were motorists trying to navigate the treacherous roadways. Seydi Burciaga, a 39-year-old woman from Georgia's Gwinnett County, was found dead in her vehicle after it was swept off a road by flooding, said Gwinnett County Fire Capt. Thomas Rutledge.

But the surging waters weren't just dangerous for drivers. A 22-year-old Alabama man, James Dale Leigh, drowned when a pond's rain-soaked bank collapsed beneath him, said Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin.

Among the hardest-hit areas was Georgia's Douglas County, where as much as a foot of rain fell Monday. Flooding there was blamed for the deaths of a man and two women in three separate situations, said county spokesman Wes Tallon.

Emergency officials were often forced to improvise to rescue dozens of people stranded in their homes and cars.

"We're using everything we can get our hands on," Tallon said. "Everything from boats to Jet Skis to ropes to ladders."

Other southeastern states were hit less severely.

In Kentucky, rescue crews went on more than a dozen runs to help stranded people after 4 inches of rain fell on parts of Louisville Sunday, said Louisville fire department spokesman Sgt. Salvador Melendez.

Water rose as high as window-level on some houses in North Carolina's Polk County, forcing emergency officials to evacuate homes along a seven-mile stretch of road. Flooding in more than 20 counties in western North Carolina closed roads, delayed school and forced evacuations.

The forecast held little good news for Georgia: Another round of storms was expected to move in Tuesday from the west.

"Don't remind me," Carroll County Emergency Management Director Tim Padgett said of the forecast. "That's the worst news we could hear."

___

Associated Press Writers Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Kate Brumback in Carrollton, Ga., Johnny C. Clark in Trion, Ga., Errin Haines in Atlanta and Randall Dickerson in Nashville contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_re_us/us_heavy_rain_southeast

[samanthajane13]

9 Southeast storm deaths as floodwaters linger
By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press Writer Kate Brumback, Associated Press Writer – 52 mins ago

AUSTELL, Ga. – Neighborhoods, schools and even roller coasters at Six Flags over Georgia were awash in several feet of murky, brown water Tuesday, and officials found a ninth storm victim who had been swept away from her car a day earlier.

Georgia officials warned worried residents to wait for the floodwaters to recede before checking out their damaged homes, and in Tennessee, a retirement center was evacuated.

Torrential Southeast rains soaked the region for days, knocking motorists from cars and splitting at least one mobile home. A Tennessee man who jumped in the floodwaters was still missing.

Washed-out roads and flooded freeways around metro Atlanta caused commuters headaches and hundreds of residents sought refuge in shelters. About 120 residents of a Tennessee retirement center were evacuated by boats and trucks and others were ferried from low-lying neighborhoods and motels in a Chattanooga suburb as two nearby creeks continued to rise.

Georgia emergency officials said they were confident those in immediate danger had been evacuated, but were concerned about residents attempting to return to their homes too soon.

"We had people who were out safely but decided they wanted to get back in danger," said Charley English, head of Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Gov. Sonny Perdue asked President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency in Georgia and urged residents to stay away from flooded areas. Officials were beginning to assess the damage and did not provide a financial estimate.

"I want to plead with you to give these waters time to recede," Perdue said. "Rescuers are putting their lives at risk to try to get someone out who foolishly drove through rushing waters."

The skies were clear and even sunny in parts of Georgia on Tuesday. Most of the rain eased overnight, but some residents in some areas woke up to new flooding.

In west Atlanta, resident Garrett Nail and several neighbors worked several hours to clear a tree that had blocked a road to their community.

"It was troubling at first. There was no power. We knew people had to get to work, school, doctor's appointments," said Nail. "We were left with two options. Help ourselves or wait on the government. We obviously decided to help ourselves."

State climatologist David Stooksbury said the ground was saturated and unable to absorb the large amounts of water.

"It just takes time for that water to work through the system," he said.

About 12,000 Georgia Power customers were without power. Scattered outages were also reported in North Carolina.

Over 300 people were being helped at shelters across the Atlanta and north Georgia region, according to Red Cross officials.

One of the largest shelters was at the Cobb County Civic Center, where Shirley Jones joined others sitting on green cots, chatting about the fate of their homes. Around them, children played games, oblivious to the destruction.

"When I saw the water rising, it brought back bad memories," said Jones, who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The 72-year-old had moved to the area two months ago.

Jones said rescue efforts this time went much more smoothly. A boat retrieved her from a family member's house.

Before being evacuated, Cordell Albert and her husband Christopher moved their valuables to the second floor of their Powder Springs home. The couple waded through knee-deep water before a raft picked them up.

"I feel lost," she said. "I feel homeless."

Seven people have died in Georgia since Sunday night, including a toddler swept away from his father's arms after a swollen creek ripped apart their trailer home.

The eighth victim, a 22-year-old Alabama man, drowned when a pond's rain-soaked bank collapsed beneath him.

In Chattanooga, Tenn., Sylvester Kitchens, 46, was still missing two days after betting onlookers he could swim across a flooded ditch next to his house.

Several others who died were motorists whose cars were overtaken or trapped by fast-rising floodwaters.

After several days of steady rain that dropped up to 20 inches in one place, forecasters said there was a chance of more light showers.

Days of downpours and thunderstorms saturated the ground from Alabama through Georgia into eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, just months after an epic two-year drought in the region ended following winter rains.

As Tuesday rush-hour began in Atlanta, Interstate 20 west of the city was closed in two spots by water spilling over the major artery for suburban commuters. Portions of at least two other freeways in the metro area were also closed, as was I-75 in Houston County in central Georgia.

Hundreds of roads and bridges were under water or washed out, including 17 bridges on state and interstate highways.

___

Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein, Johnny C. Clark, Errin Haines and Dionne Walker in Atlanta, and Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Tenn., contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_re_us/us_heavy_rain_southeast