Counties south of I-20 now under state of emergency

Kemp’s declaration will make it easier for help to go to South Georgia.

Following heavy rainfall over the past few days, Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Thursday for all Georgia counties south of I-20 due to flooding.

He made the announcement Thursday afternoon at a news conference addressing COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

I-20 crosses through these Georgia counties, from west to east: Haralson, Carroll, Douglas, Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb, Rockdale, Newton, Morgan, Greene, Taliaferro, Warren, McDuffie, Columbia and Richmond.

In total, 120 counties are under the state of emergency.

Kemp said the reason for the state of emergency was to make it easier for state resources to move into affected areas in South Georgia.

“We’ve got some road issues and other infrastructure issues that we’re seeing because of the brunt and level of rainfall that we’ve had and flooding that’s going on,” Kemp said. “We’re working with GEMA (Georgia Emergency Management Agency) to ensure that these communities have all the tools and resources that they need to deal with this fallout.”

Several inches of rain have fallen across the state this week, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz said. Some spots in metro Atlanta saw up to 2 inches over the past 24 hours.

The area hit the hardest was near Americus in South Georgia, which has seen up to 6 inches of rain since Tuesday. Most of South and Middle Georgia has

amassed 2 to 3 inches during

that time period, but there is good news: The rain is stopping soon.

“This is finally coming to an end after wet weather Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,” he said.

The flooding risk continues as the rainfall pools, overflows creek beds and ponds on roads. A flash flood watch was in effect for 69 counties, including most of metro Atlanta, until 7 p.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

“The greatest (flooding) risk is going to be down in Middle and South Georgia,” Nitz said.

Gov. Brian Kemp