Flooding, trees down amid heavy rainfall 2 days in a row in Polk Co.

The stormy weather came and went through Polk County last week and left behind a wake of downed trees, power outages and flooding that saw at least one local resident pulled from rising waters.

The area between Delano and Roosevelt Streets off East Avenue in Cedartown saw a quick rise in the creek running under the road as six inches of water fell over Cedartown on the afternoon of June 2, which caused a wheelchair bound woman to be pulled from her house when the brief rising flood reached the back door of the house.

“They were about to issue another severe thunderstorm warning, so EMS moved her out of the house,” said Polk County Public Safety Director Randy Lacey.

The scene marked the high point of storm damage in Cedartown last week after the midweek weather moved through starting on Wednesday, June 1, leaving behind downed power lines and trees on the western and northern side of the county.

Power was out for more than 3 hours on during the afternoon and evening hours and trees all along the College Street corridor tumbled between houses, in yards and into the roadway on some occasions.

The storm also knocked WGAA 1340 AM off the airwaves during the power outage.

Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome was thankful no injuries were reported during the incidents, but said it was a close call.

Then storms returned again on June 2 to add another level of damage and headaches.

“The whole subdivision around Franklin Road was flooded, and we cut the gas off to the houses because we were concerned that since more

rain was moving into the area, it might become a bigger problem,” Lacey said.

Flooding also took a toll on the Cedartown High School softball field, according to Principal Darrell Wetherington. He said the flooding was not caused by ongoing construction work on drainage and the new College and Career Academy, since a retaining pond has been built temporarily to hold water until the drainage work is done.

Along with the flooding, trees were knocked down on Burkhalter Road between the Davis Road and Lake Creek Road intersec- tions. They also went down and have blocked Pine Pitch Road area.

Flooding could have been prevented in the Delano Road area according to Devina Williams and her husband Todd, owner of T&L Heating and Air located almost on the corner. They own a portion of the creek along the roadway, and said last year they asked both the city and county seperately for help keeping vegetation from growing within.

The pair said they contacted Cedartown commissioner Matt Foster about the problem to see if someone could help.

Foster said he went to the city first, asking whether the area could be kept cut by Public Works but because it sits just over the limits of Cedartown, it became a question for the county. Foster said he took it to former Assistant County Manager David McElwee, who promised to inquire with the county.

County manager Matt Denton said that he had heard about the issue, but that unless flooding on a local level posed a particular threat to washing out a roadway, the county didn’t spend time and money on maintaining private ditches.

The portion of ditch had been maintained in the past, Denton said, but said they would still require permission to do so.