All of the Atlanta area counties schools were closed on Tuesday September 22 due to some major flooding.
Federal officials: September's flood 'off the charts'By Mary Lou Pickel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If a 500-year flood is a cup of coffee, what Georgia got in September was the whole pot, the U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday.
The Sept. 21 flood in Georgia was worse than what's statistically projected to happen once every 100 years -- even worse than every 500 years. It was "extremely rare", "epic" and so "stunning", the U.S. Geological Survey says the flood has defied its attempts to define it.
"This flood was off the charts," said Brian McCallum, assistant director for the U.S. Geological Survey's Georgia Water Science Center in Atlanta.
The Geological Survey does not quantify floods greater than a 500-year flood because the numbers begin to be too uncertain after that point, McCallum said.
According to the National Weather Service, some locations recorded up to 20 inches of rain from 8 p.m. Sept. 20 to 8 p.m. the following day.
"Normally we get just over 50 inches of rain in one year," McCallum said of metro Atlanta. "We got almost half our annual rainfall in one day in some places."
Scientists called the flooding in Atlanta one of the worst floods in the country in the last 100 years.
Flood waters washed away streamgages used to measure the water flow. In Douglas County, the Dog River flowed over the streamgage by 12 feet, roaring by at more than 448,000 gallons per second -- well beyond a 500-year flood, McCallum said.
All of that rain returned water levels in Lake Lanier and Allatoona Lake, to pre-drought levels. Lake Lanier rose by more than three feet after the flood and returned to full pool in October. Allatoona Lake rose to 13 feet over full pool.
"It takes a very large flood to end a very historic drought, and we certainly got that in September," McCallum said.
This was a new one to add to the list of school closing. Our house was dry excepted for a few leaks in the garage. Our garage is the lowest part of our house (basement level). We later found out why water was coming in. The people who built the house didn't put in the flashing where the deck meets the house. Jon has temporarily fixed it but we do have some wood rot that will need to be replaced in near future. We also got some major craters in our newly finished backyard from water traveling the same path for over a week. We did everything we were supposed to but with that much rain in a short time nothing could stop the craters from forming. We had to order a whole dump load of dirt to fill in the canyons. That is how much dirt we lost. Oh well out of 40 loads to level off the area one isn't too bad just time we don't want to spend shoveling dirt.
Federal officials: September's flood 'off the charts'By Mary Lou Pickel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If a 500-year flood is a cup of coffee, what Georgia got in September was the whole pot, the U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday.
The Sept. 21 flood in Georgia was worse than what's statistically projected to happen once every 100 years -- even worse than every 500 years. It was "extremely rare", "epic" and so "stunning", the U.S. Geological Survey says the flood has defied its attempts to define it.
"This flood was off the charts," said Brian McCallum, assistant director for the U.S. Geological Survey's Georgia Water Science Center in Atlanta.
The Geological Survey does not quantify floods greater than a 500-year flood because the numbers begin to be too uncertain after that point, McCallum said.
According to the National Weather Service, some locations recorded up to 20 inches of rain from 8 p.m. Sept. 20 to 8 p.m. the following day.
"Normally we get just over 50 inches of rain in one year," McCallum said of metro Atlanta. "We got almost half our annual rainfall in one day in some places."
Scientists called the flooding in Atlanta one of the worst floods in the country in the last 100 years.
Flood waters washed away streamgages used to measure the water flow. In Douglas County, the Dog River flowed over the streamgage by 12 feet, roaring by at more than 448,000 gallons per second -- well beyond a 500-year flood, McCallum said.
All of that rain returned water levels in Lake Lanier and Allatoona Lake, to pre-drought levels. Lake Lanier rose by more than three feet after the flood and returned to full pool in October. Allatoona Lake rose to 13 feet over full pool.
"It takes a very large flood to end a very historic drought, and we certainly got that in September," McCallum said.
This was a new one to add to the list of school closing. Our house was dry excepted for a few leaks in the garage. Our garage is the lowest part of our house (basement level). We later found out why water was coming in. The people who built the house didn't put in the flashing where the deck meets the house. Jon has temporarily fixed it but we do have some wood rot that will need to be replaced in near future. We also got some major craters in our newly finished backyard from water traveling the same path for over a week. We did everything we were supposed to but with that much rain in a short time nothing could stop the craters from forming. We had to order a whole dump load of dirt to fill in the canyons. That is how much dirt we lost. Oh well out of 40 loads to level off the area one isn't too bad just time we don't want to spend shoveling dirt.
One of the dirt craters
The whole week leading up to the flooding was rainy everyday. The area we live in didn't get 20 inches in 24 hours but we did get at least 12". I was supposed to teach my first day of preschool.
Below are some pictures I got off the Internet of some harder hit areas.
Six Flags
1 comment:
The end is near!!!!
Haha. Ok, maybe not so funny. It's true though right? Floods are supposed to be part of the warnings of the second coming right?
I hope no one was hurt in those floods. Scary. Glad your house faired well though. Those photos were scary. So much damage.
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