Rains taper off, flood watch dropped

By Ralph Ellis and Mary Lou Pickel

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A flash flood watch posted for metro Atlanta and the rest of north Georgia was canceled late Wednesday morning after rain that began overnight tapered off.

The rain began moving into the northwest corner of the state before midnight Tuesday night, reaching metro Atlanta around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

The heavy showers had moved south of Atlanta by 8 a.m., but not before dumping between a half and 1 inch on an already soggy region.

Rainfall totals through 10 a.m. ranged  from .37 inch in downtown Atlanta and .78 inch at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to 1.11 inch in Rome and .97 inch in Gainesville.

The Weather Service had earlier predicted that 1 to 3 inches of rain could fall Wednesday on metro Atlanta's swollen rivers and saturated soil, causing messy commutes, standing water in the streets and flooding of residential areas.

Some areas got a good dousing before daybreak, and there were reports of deep standing water on I-85 near Flat Shoals Road in south Fulton County.

The owners of houses near waterways that overflowed during last month’s killer storms could only sit back and wait. They knew another bath was coming when it rained long and hard Monday.

“As far as what to do, there’s not much we can do,” said Catherine Melke, who moved out of her Atlanta home after it was flooded by Peachtree Creek. “Who’s going to put a couple of new air conditioning compressors outside when you’re expecting more water? It’s holding up the process of starting again.”

And what’s the forecast for Thursday? More rain, probably starting in the afternoon, though the chance of precipitation is “only” 60 percent, according to the Weather Service. It should cool off starting Wednesday, with high temperatures hitting the 60s through Sunday.

Weather Service meteorologist Dan Darbe said Georgia should blame all this rain on the Pacific.

“In a nutshell, it’s because of a moderate El Nino pattern,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of Pacific systems coming across the southern United States. We just happen to be in that beeline. … A lot of our moisture has been a tap of Pacific storms.”

The September storms that wreaked so much havoc were caused by a low pressure system that “got left behind” and stalled over the Deep South, spinning off several storms that hit Atlanta one after the other, Darbe said. Right now, Atlanta is being pelted with another series of storms.

“It will stay cloudy and kind of damp, then there will be a round of heavy rain,” Darbe said.

The forecast worried authorities in Cobb County, the area hit hardest last month. On Tuesday, the county prepared to send police to barricade roads that might flood and position firetrucks and other equipment in areas that might be cut off by high water, Cobb County Commissioner Bob Ott said.

Ott said he was concerned the Columns Drive area in east Cobb and the Brandy Station subdivision in Vinings could be cut off.

The Southern Co. has asked the Army Corps of Engineers not to release any more water than is necessary from the Buford Dam at Lake Lanier, Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens said. Similarly, the Southern Co. will attempt to release as little water as possible from the Morgan Falls Dam, which is downstream, he said.

Atlantans, who for years worried about drought, are now obsessed with an excess of water because of the 500-year storm that pounded the region last month.

Several days of heavy rain caused rivers to overflow, killing 10 people across the state and driving thousands of people from their homes. The Red Cross said high water damaged about 2,900 residences. A few weeks ago the insurance commissioner conservatively estimated damage at $500 million.

On Tuesday, several waterways topped flood stage, fed by the heavy rains of Monday’s storms.

Big Creek in Alpharetta, which has a flood stage of 7 feet, hit 10.46 feet about 2 p.m. Tuesday. Sweetwater Creek hit 11.14 feet about the same time; its flood stage is 10 feet.

For comparison purposes, the Weather Service said Sweetwater’s crest on Sept. 22, during the height of last month’s flooding, was 30.17 feet – a record for that waterway.

So far in October, 4.81 inches of rain have been measured at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, 3.56 more than normal. In September, the airport measured 8.94 inches, 4.85 inches more than normal.

The rain is causing other problems besides flooding. On Tuesday, a tree with a root system weakened by the rains fell and forced the rush-hour closure of all six lanes on Peachtree Road between Lindbergh Drive and Lakeview Avenue.

Some relief should come this weekend, with the chance of rain at 20 percent Friday and zero percent Saturday and Sunday, but the Weather Service said the rest of October could be kind of soggy.

“The pattern we’re in is a wet pattern,” Darbe said. “Forecast models indicate we’ll stay in that a little while.”

Staff writers Alexis Stevens and Mike Morris contributed to this report.