Heavy rains flood towns, dozens rescued on Georgia-Tennessee border

McCAYSVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Thunderstorms caused grounds flooding overnight successful duplicate towns straddling the Georgia-Tennessee border, submerging immoderate buildings to their rooflines connected Thursday arsenic exigency responders rescued dozens of people.

With floodwaters receding by afternoon, residents returned to find stores and different businesses near successful disarray by surging waters and piles of debris.

The storms dropped dense rainfall crossed a mountainous country that drains into the Toccoa River betwixt McCaysville, Georgia, and Copperhill, Tennessee, causing life-threatening flooding connected some sides. The Toccoa past flows into the Ocoee River, wherever the Tennessee Valley Authority was managing precocious h2o levels astatine 3 of its hydroelectric dams.

As overmuch arsenic 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 centimeters) fell overnight betwixt the northbound Georgia towns of Blue Ridge and Ellijay, and runoff from uncontrolled streams swelled the rivers below, according to the TVA.

The Toccoa River reached a grounds precocious Thursday greeting of 18 feet (5.5 meters), according to a stream gauge successful Copperhill, wherever less than 500 radical unrecorded crossed from McCaysville, location to astir 1,000. Copperhill officials urged radical to instrumentality structure successful either town's City Hall arsenic the stream reached 2 feet (0.6 meters) supra the level forecasters see “catastrophic."

“It’s a small spot heartbreaking,” said Hugh Rogers, who has owned McCaysville Drug & Gun since 1997.

Rogers said helium got a telephone astir 2:30 a.m. Thursday that the h2o was rising, and erstwhile helium arrived astatine the store astir an hr later, the h2o wrong was astir 4 oregon 5 feet (1.2 oregon 1.5 meters) deep, knocking implicit shelves and destroying astir $200,000 oregon $300,000 worthy of inventory.

But Rogers said helium considers himself luckier than others whose homes were damaged, and that family, friends and coworkers were readying to “come retired strong” connected Friday to assistance him cleanable up.

“It’s been our livelihood for 30 years, truthful we’re going to bash what we tin to support it going,” helium said.

Some buildings were submerged to their rooflines arsenic rescue crews successful reddish boats and motorized rafts navigated done the deep, rushing h2o flowing implicit downtown streets. Emergency unit besides went location to location and searched overhead with a chopper and drones for anyone needing to beryllium evacuated.

At slightest 57 radical were rescued by swift h2o teams earlier the floodwaters began to recede, according to the Fannin County Emergency Management Agency successful Georgia, which warned radical that flooded areas stay unsafe good aft the rainfall stops. The Tennessee Emergency Management Authority said it had coordinated 68 rescues by swift h2o teams.

McCaysville Police Chief Michael Earley said the h2o flowed implicit rooftops successful immoderate places, and reached astir 6-7 feet (1.8-2.1 meters) precocious successful the tiny downtown. “I person 1 of my constabulary cars that’s floating down the stream close now. Don’t cognize wherever it’s at, but it’s determination down there,” the main told Fox5 Atlanta aboriginal Thursday.

One firefighter suffered a insignificant wounded and a fewer residents were treated for suspected hypothermia and shock, “but from what we could tell, everybody looked to beryllium OK,” Earley said.

The exigency effect was analyzable by cellphone and powerfulness outages, Earley said. The flooding besides unopen down the McCaysville h2o attraction plant, prompting a boil h2o advisory, and it enactment the city's dump trucks and dense instrumentality retired of reach.

By Thursday day the stream had settled good into its banks again. Occasionally a seat oregon immoderate different benignant of debris flowed swiftly nether the bridges that link the towns. Street sweepers were moving to get mud and branches disconnected the roads.

The adjoining towns are a quaint destination for scenic railroad rides — the Blue Ridge Railway connected the Georgia broadside and the Copperhill Special successful Tennessee. Both dainty tourists to stream and upland views earlier stopping to illustration the restaurants and shops.

McCaysville's downtown was inundated by different flood successful August, damaging the constabulary presumption and station bureau on with different businesses and residences. The renovated constabulary gathering reopened conscionable past week.

“Now present we spell again,” the main said. "A batch of radical came together, and we’ve been cleaning the municipality for the past fewer months. We’re getting acceptable for Christmas, a batch of McCaysville events, our Christmas parade. So it’s devastating.”

It's brainsick to beryllium deed with 2 specified damaging floods successful conscionable 3 months, the main said. “I don’t cognize what God is trying to archer me.”