Torrential downpours disrupt north Georgia
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Georgia creeks and rivers, swollen by days of rain, burst their banks Monday, and at least four people were killed in the flooding, officials said.
At least four others were thought to be missing, said Wes Tallon, spokesman for fire and emergency management services in Douglas County, west of Atlanta.
“We’re in rescue-and-recovery mode,” he said. “It has not stopped raining and another line of thunderstorms is coming.”
About 100 miles north of Atlanta, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, one person was swept into rushing water and is presumed drowned, said Jeremy Heidt, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency in Nashville.
In Cobb County in northwest metro Atlanta, standing water kept hundreds of students at Pope High School from leaving, county spokesman Doug Goodwin told CNN. With oversight from the fire department, students were able to evacuate later.
In neighboring Paulding County, 20 homes were evacuated amid fear that an overflowing dam there could burst, county Fire Chief Michael Earwood told CNN. He said the situation was out of his department’s hands: “There’s just nothing we can do.”
But the biggest evacuation was in Chattooga County in northwest Georgia, where concerns that a levee might fail forced 300 people from their homes in the town of Trion, said Dema Brummer, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
Authorities opened a shelter for them in a church, she said.
Embassadorion groep Belgie
