Overflowing Peachtree Creek floods homes, cars

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The remnants of Hurricane Ivan left two feet of standing water in Catherine Melke's basement five years ago.

Monday, that seemed like nothing.

A combination of heavy rains, an overflowing Peachtree Creek and a broken hot water heater poured eight feet of water the basement of Melke's Buckhead home. Only the top three steps of a flight of stairs can be seen peeking out into a room now filled with a soaked Christmas tree ornaments and power tools.

"What scares me is that it's not dropping," said Melke, who's dealing with the mess while her husband is in Africa.

Gushing Peachtree Creek has turned her Woodward Way home into waterfront property — but not the kind you want to brag about. The backyard is its own lake and has swallowed her Mercedes.

"There's water coming into my house from the city and from the creek, and that's not manageable," she said late Monday morning.

Rain poured on Atlanta all weekend, but Melke said the house was water-free until Sunday night.

"We got that storm, and that was the final blow," she said.

In the morning, Melke said she went to wake up her 17-year-old stepdaughter for school — that's when she heard a loud bang followed by a wooshing sound.

"Then the water started rushing. I'm talking Colorado River style," she said.

Melke said part of the house's foundation had collapsed. On top of that, she thinks the hot water heater broke away from the water pipe adding to the deluge.

She went through the house, stacking chairs on top of tables and piling rugs, bedsheets and lamps onto beds. Her next challenge was to keep her black-and-white cat, Miss Puss, upstairs.

"I'm just trying to save what I can," she said, watching the muddy creek rush by her house.

Relief came when neighbors Bill Rupprecht and Julian Phillips headed down Woodward Way.

Rupprecht, 55, who lives atop of a hill on Sagamore Drive, waded through waist-deep waters in black high-water boots and flagged down a City of Atlanta truck for help.

Meanwhile Phillips was heading to check on his mother but ended up going back to his house to get a plumber's key to try and turn off the water to Melke's house — which he finally did around 11:30.

"We haven't had a flood like this since this since Hurrican Ivan ... because we've been in a drought," said Phillips, 42. "We kinda got spoiled. Now everything in the basement is under five feet of water. It's time to start throwing some stuff away and drying some stuff out.

Others stranded by the flood caught a break in the late morning as well. Ira VanWagner spent the morning in his truck after trying to drive through standing water on Sagamore Drive to pick up his daughter-in-law at the train station at 7 a.m.

"I thought I could make it, but I didn't make it," said a very unhappy VanWagner, who was sitting in the passenger side of the truck next to his son, Matt, 35, who came to keep him company.

Not only was VanWagner stuck, his daughter in law, traveling in from Baltimore, was stuck on the train somewhere around Gainesville, he said.

VanWagner had three helpers -- two men who helped push his truck out of the water and another who helped turn it to face Northside Drive. He then called a tow-truck company, who said to prepare for a two-hour wait. Another one said the same thing.

"They are all backed up," he said.

But as a truck arrived to lift a sky-blue Honda Pilot from the waters, Matt VanWagner tried to give the red truck another start. The engine turned over, and they pulled out and drove off on Northside Drive.