Rivers set to crest this morning
Rivers reach flood stage after storms dump massive amounts of rain
The line of severe weather that raked across Northwest Georgia dumped 4.4” of rain on Rome Thursday, causing the Oostanaula River to rise more than 11 feet in a 24-hour period.
The river was still rising throughout the day Friday and the National Weather Service has forecast a peak of 27.8 feet early Saturday morning.
“I was sitting here about 6 p.m. (Thursday night) and thought to myself I’ve never heard it rain like this,” said Floyd County Public Works Director Michael Skeen. “Then it started to rain even harder.”
Funnel clouds were spotted in the air from Cave Spring to Six Mile, then Chulio Hills before leaving the community without actually touching down on the ground.
When the rivers take in that much water that quickly, tributaries and backwater gets backed up causing flooding issues along the watershed.
Armuchee Creek, Big Dry Creek and Little Dry Creek all experienced serious backwater issues from Thursday night into Saturday and the water problems could just be getting started.
Skeen said that Thomas Bluff Road north of Georgia Highway 140, Old River Road off Georgia 20 west and Collier Road off Old Dalton Road are probably going to be closed for several days because of the high water.
Silver Hill Road off U.S. 27 North is also going to be shut down for a while because of a mud slide that brought down some utility lines.
“We are not going to be able to do anything up there until Georgia Power gets in,” Skeen said.
One of the real stunners was the way water poured into Schroeder’s New Deli, 406 Broad St.
“hours I spent several shop vacc’ing it only to have it flood again.”
Caleigh Schroeder, Schroeder’s New Deli on Broad Street in Downtown Rome
“I spent several hours shop vacc’ing it only to have it flood again,” said Caleigh Schroeder.
She explained that the lay of the land where the restaurant sits has caused some minor water issues in the past, but nothing like she experienced Thursday afternoon.
“Usually it’s clogged drains but this time it was just such a high volume of water in such a short period of time,” Schroeder said. The restaurant was going to be closed for an undetermined period of time while she deals with the cleanup and insurance issues.
A section of a new retaining wall at the Myrtle Hill Cemetery gave way to the heavy flow of rainwater dropping off the cemetery in a torrent Thursday evening. A larger section of the retaining wall collapsed in flooding rains during March 2019.
Complicating the situation this weekend, the National Weather Service is predicting another round of potentially heavy rain beginning Saturday morning
Meteorologist Matt Sena with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City said the next system certainly could bring another inch to inch and half of rain. Couple that with the existing saturated soils and high water could be bad news.
“Even if we don’t get as much rain (as Thursday) we could see some reaction,” Sena said.