Editor's note: This story was published in September 2009.
The sun edged the clouds aside Tuesday, giving Atlanta a clear view of the $250 million in damage recent storms left behind.
An afternoon helicopter tour of western suburbs Tuesday offered an AJC reporter views of ballfields turned to lakes, house and building roofs and street lights poking out of the water. While much of the flooding had receded, residents could be observed canoeing through some neighborhoods. In one subdivision, between Austell and Powder Springs, a house still burned — despite the water — as a firetruck that had been flooded the night before by rising water sat nearby.
The Chattahoochee River seemed to span a half-mile in areas south of Douglasville, and some of the attractions at Six Flags Over Georgia had become water rides.
As authorities reported flood-related deaths had climbed to nine and scores of roads and portions of some highways remained closed, President Barack Obama took a break from United Nations climate change discussions to call Gov. Sonny Perdue.
While not yet declaring the counties hit hardest by flooding federal disaster areas, "the president assured Gov. Perdue that his request for federal aid would receive prompt attention," White House spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai said Wednesday morning.
Perdue on Tuesday asked the president for an emergency declaration to assist 17 counties hit hardest by the flooding. The president must sign an emergency declaration before federal aid is delivered.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was reviewing the request, and Georgia’s congressional delegation contacted the White House and emergency officials, urging them to hustle. State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine estimates the storms caused $250 million in damage.
“I think the story will probably be the bridges in the weeks ahead,” said U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who lives in east Cobb County and saw the flooding here Monday. “Those bridges were really put under a lot of stress.”
U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) drafted a House resolution offering sympathy to storm victims.
“I will be doing all I can — working with state, city and county officials as well as making petitions to the federal government — to offer as much assistance as is available in this tragic situation,” it read.
The state Department of Transportation hasn’t yet figured the cost of repairing storm-damaged roads, but following this spring’s flooding in South Georgia, emergency responses such as clearing debris, rerouting traffic, or installing temporary road patches cost about $1.1 million, said spokesman David Spear.
That doesn’t include permanent repairs made afterward to roads or bridges. The two deluges were comparable by DOT standards, Spear said.
Inspection crews and federal officials started assessing damage on Tuesday, but they need things to dry out before coming up with good estimates. Repairing a washed-out culvert could cost about $100,000, but damage to water or utility pipes underneath could double that amount, for example.
“Some could go as high as $1 million, I think, depending on what the damage is,” said Gwinnett County transportation director Brian Allen, who said five or six county roads would need “longer-term repair.”
Fixing flooded stretches of highway or interstate bridges, like the portions of I-20 still under water Tuesday, can involve price tags with lots of zeros. Repairs after a highway bridge collapsed in Minneapolis in 2007 — an extreme example — cost about $300 million, said Federal Highway Administration spokeswoman Nancy Singer.
Perdue’s declaration of a state of emergency on Monday was the first step in the process of getting federal aid, which could pay for at least 80 percent of the transportation repair cost. Singer said Georgia “likely would be eligible” for federal road aid now.
Without government assistance, homeowners lacking flood insurance — likely thousands of metro Atlantans — will have to pay for repairs themselves or forgo them.
In Austell, where flooding swamped Clarkdale Elementary School, one group of neighbors isn’t waiting on government dollars.
“We are asking for help to collect school supplies for our colleagues and their little ones,” reads a message from two women who created a “Relief for Flooded Clarkdale Elementary” page on Facebook. “Teachers, please go through your cabinets and pull whatever you can as far as crayons, pencils, markers, paper, glue, etc. We’re open to ideas, suggestions, and any information you might have.”
Jaime Beth Conner, whose son Brice once attended Clarkdale, saluted the effort.
“The Conner family extends prayer to the Clarkdale families for quick transition and recovery,” said Conner, whose son is now in high school.
The storms' tragic aftermath continued as the death toll rose to nine Tuesday.
The only bright bit of news seems to be Lake Lanier, long depleted by the drought but now rising. It surpassed 1,067 feet Tuesday, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects it to exceed 1,068 feet by Saturday. It’s full at 1,071 feet. There are no plans to open the floodgates, as officials have done at West Point Lake in Troup County.
Perdue’s state of emergency declaration applied to Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Crawford, DeKalb, Douglas, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Stephens and Walker counties.
In those 17 counties, workers stayed busy Tuesday fortifying roads and bridges and rescuing flood victims — some of whom chanced plowing through standing water.
“We’ve seen an increase of water rescues in comparison with [Monday],” said Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Dena Brummer. “On the local level, people are not following the warnings of their local authorities, and they’re taking their chances and rolling the dice to see if they can cross roads with water on it.”
Much of GEMA’s efforts have been focused in Carroll, Paulding and Douglas counties, and the agency is pleading with residents to let waters recede from flooded roads before traveling on them again.
“Don’t take a chance,” Brummer said. “Use a little common sense.”
Contributing: Rhonda Cook, Patrick Fox, Marcus K. Garner, Ariel Hart, Michael E. Kanell, Bob Keefe, Katie Leslie, Megan Matteucci, Mike Morris, Aaron Gould Sheinin and Steve Visser
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