The World Around Us: Remembering the Historic Flood of 94'
Tyler Southard
Story Created:
Jul 6, 2011 at 6:09 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Jul 7, 2011 at 12:07 AM EDT
During the morning hours of Sunday July 3rd 1994, Tropical Storm Alberto plowed into the southeast.
In the days that followed, over 2 feet of rain fell in some areas across central Georgia swelling streams and rivers including the Ocmulgee which eventually breached banks and burst levees on Wednesday July 6th.
The flood drove 60,000 people from their homes and left 33 people dead across Georgia.
“People just don’t plan for that. It’s devastating but we all rebuild and make things better for the next time,” says Mark Wynn, Deputy Director of the Macon-Bibb Emergency Management Agency.
The cost of damage to homes, businesses, farms, and infrastructure exceeded 800 million dollars in Georgia.
Motorists were stranded in shelters for days as I-75 and I-16 sat under 4 feet of water in some locations.
The floodwaters change the landscape of central Georgia transforming Montezuma into a lake and Americus into an island.
17 years ago from this date the water level would have been 35 feet high. Now it is so low that you can see the bottom in some areas. Ironically, it would take another tropical storm to relieve us from the drought we're in.
Just as our rivers are drying up now, faucets across Macon followed a similar fate.
The old Macon water treatment facility fell victim to the flood along the banks of the Ocmulgee leaving Macon without water for 3 weeks.
After the waters receded, roads and levees were rebuilt even stronger in hopes a disaster of this magnitude never happens again.
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