The heavy rain that flooded streets, forced the evacuation of a Sandy Springs apartment complex and trapped residents inside one Cherokee County neighborhood late Wednesday had diminished by early Thursday, as the threat from another deluge moved south of metro Atlanta.
About 100 residents of The Falls at Sandy Springs apartment complex were evacuated as officials worked to stabilize a dam on a small pond in the complex, which is in the 5500 block of Roswell Road just inside I-285.
“The overnight storm damaged the dam, also causing a gas leak,” said Sharon Kraun, communications director for Sandy Springs.
One northbound lane of Roswell Road was closed, Kraun said.
Sandy Springs Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Mark Duke said that around 9 p.m. Wednesday, “we got called out for a pedestrian bridge that had partially collapsed. On our arrival, we found that the pedestrian bridge was actually on top of a small dam that has partially collapsed and is in danger of collapsing the rest of the way.”
Early Thursday, authorities were working to pump more water out of the quarter-acre pond “and take the pressure off the dam so they can safely release this water downstream,” Duke told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A second apartment complex downstream, The Mosaic at Sandy Springs, had been put on notice and was under a voluntary evacuation because if the breached dam were to break, “there’s a small pond behind those apartments that would rapidly fill and we feel there would be some flooding on the first level floors of those apartments,” Duke said.
“If we were to get more rain before we get this thing pumped off and get it stabilized, we could potentially see a catastrophic failure of this dam,” Duke said. “It would be a sudden rush of water.”
Four displaced families sought refuge Thursday at a Red Cross shelter set up at Sandy Springs United Methodist Church on Mount Vernon Highway, according to Red Cross spokeswoman Sherry Nicholson.
The dam breach happened right outside Kellie Mott and Antonio Hannah’s apartment, forcing them to take shelter at the church.
“It sounded weird, like it could have been an accident or something because it’s so close to Roswell Road,” Hannah said.
Hannah said that when he asked officials how long they would be displaced from their home, he was told “only an hour, and that hour turned into 24 hours.”
“Thank God for the American Red Cross, because we didn’t have anywhere to go,” Mott said.
“The Red Cross will continue to assist these families and others of the approximately 100 evacuated apartment residents who may seek shelter throughout the day while they wait and see whether flooding will impact their homes,” Nicholson said just after daybreak Thursday.
In Woodstock, about 30 families were stranded in the Hickory Glen subdivision after the deluge washed away the ground under Stoney Creek Road, Cherokee County sheriff’s Lt. Jay Baker said.
James Tongue, who lives in the affected part of the subdivision, said this was the third time the only way to and from his house has washed away, the last time happening about three years ago.
“We drove through here last night around 7:30 and we saw a little bit of deterioration here, but my comment was it’s not as bad as the last time,” Tongue said.
Tongue’s neighbors, Lance and Penney Davis, said they a co-worker was meeting them on the other side of the damaged stretch of road to take them to work because “we’ve got to be there.”
“This is what we have to do until the county makes a way for me to get my car out,” he said.
His wife had more serious concerns than the inconvenience caused by the damaged roadway.
“It is unacceptable not to have a way for emergency vehicles to get in and out,” Penney Davis said.
In southeast Atlanta, one person had to be rescued from a Macon Drive home, according to fire officials.
About 3,000 Georgia Power customers statewide were without electricity early Thursday.
A flash flood warning posted for a large swath of metro Atlanta expired during the early morning hours Thursday, but the National Weather Service has issued a flood watch beginning Thursday afternoon for much of central and south Georgia.
That watch, which goes into effect at 2 p.m. Thursday and continues through Friday evening, was prompted by the forecast path of the year’s first tropical storm.
“Tropical Storm Andrea will track along the southeast Georgia coast through this evening, spreading ample moisture northward,” the Weather Service said before daybreak Thursday.
A handful of coastal Georgia counties were also under a tropical storm watch Thursday.
Wednesday night’s storms, which began around 6 p.m., also caused long delays for flights headed to and from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Rainfall totals Wednesday night included a record for the date of 4.14 inches at the airport, 4.25 inches in Sharpsburg, 3.58 inches in Chamblee and 2.25 inches in Peachtree City.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Karen Minton said the chance of more rain across metro Atlanta is 80 percent Thursday and 70 percent Friday, diminishing to 20 percent Saturday through Monday.
Highs will be a degree or two on either side of 80 Thursday and Friday, and in the mid-80s over the weekend. Lows will be in the mid-60s.
Staff writer Alexis Stevens contributed to this article.
About the Author
