[Vision2020] VP Biden Tours Devastation From Record Setting (20 inches rain, above once a 100 year event predictions) Flooding In US Southeast

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igyXc-4XxCFyBa_vJSPGbYlcO3mwD9AUDJ100

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http://wcco.com/national/floods.rain.georgia.2.1199172.html

 Sep 22, 2009 6:15 pm US/Central
Death Toll Reaches 9 In Epic Georgia Flooding Storms Pound Southeast;
Motorists Trapped In Cars Die As 'Historic' Rains Swamp Roads

ATLANTA (CBS News) --Authorities in Georgia say they have found another
Southeast storm victim and the death toll is now nine.

Douglas County Coroner Randy Daniel says authorities believe the woman was
swept from her car just west of Atlanta during thunderstorms that brought
several inches of rain to the area.

He says family members say the woman was on her way to work after being
called in at 2:30 a.m. Monday. Daniel says the woman was discovered Tuesday.

Other storm victims include a 2-year-old boy swept from his father's arms
when a creek ripped open the family's west Georgia mobile home. A Tennessee
man is still missing after he jumped in floodwaters.

Officials are warning worried residents to wait for water levels to recede
before returning to their damaged homes.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is asking President Barack Obama for an emergency
federal disaster declaration to help homeowners struggling with flooded
property after this week's epic deluge.

The governor said he hopes for a decision by the end of Tuesday and is
expecting "some level of federal reimbursement" as the cash-strapped state
grapples with the emergency. He said the state "will do everything in its
power, both physically and fiscally" to help flood victims.

Storms raking the Southeast for days have dropped up to 20 inches of rain in
just three days, turning docile creeks into surging rivers, leaving entire
neighborhoods underwater, washing out hundreds of bridges, and trapping
motorists in their cars.

Seven deaths have been confirmed in Georgia, and one in Alabama. Most of the
dead were motorists trying to navigate the treacherous roadways.

Perdue urged residents to stay away from flooded areas, and told residents
to resist the temptation to return to their neighborhoods.

He said, "I know stuff is important - but it's not nearly as important as
your life. Give these waters time to recede."
Floodwaters around Atlanta shut down at least three interstate highways
during morning rush hour.
It is the latest blow to the region that's been struggling with torrential
rain and deadly floods.

Hundreds of Georgia residents affected by the floods crammed into Red Cross
shelters across the state.

The relief agency reported 327 people registered at shelters statewide
Tuesday. The bulk were at the Cobb County Civic Center, which was
transformed into a shelter.

Seventy-two-year-old Shirley Jones joined others sitting on green cots in
the converted shelter, chatting about the fate of their homes.

Jones lived in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. She moved to Powder
Springs two months ago, and said the sight of rising water brought back bad
memories.

But this time she says rescue efforts have gone more smoothly.

The death toll in the flooding in Georgia has reached eight after rescuers
found the body of a 15-year-old boy, as storms raking the Southeast for days
dropped up to 20 inches of rain, turning docile creeks into surging rivers.

The teen's body was found in the Chattooga River in northwest Georgia on
Tuesday morning.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency also reported a new death west of
Atlanta. No more details were immediately available.

Other victims include 2-year-old Preston Crawford, who was swept away from
his family when a creek ripped open their west Georgia mobile home around 2
a.m. Monday.

The body of the drowned boy nicknamed "Scooter" wasn't found until hours
later. His parents had been rescued from the raging waters as another son,
Cooper, age 1, clung to his mother's arms in Carroll County, west of
Atlanta.

"This is just a freak accident," said Pat Crawford, grandmother of Preston.
"We don't understand why it happened. I guess we never will."

Officials say two men and two women died in Douglas County in separate
incidents.

Douglas County officials told CBS Affiliate WGCL that two adult females were
found dead in separate incidents in the Banks Mill Road area. One was found
in an automobile in Billy Creek, a tributary of the Dog River.

Douglas County authorities also found an adult male body downstream from a
car swept into Bluff Creek. The man had no identification on him, reports
WGCL.

Aerial shots showed schools, parking lots and even entire neighborhoods
submerged by the deluge, sending some unlucky residents scurrying for higher
ground.

In Atlanta, stranded motorists scrambled to the tops of their car as waters
rose on one of the city's busiest highways. To the north, crews worked to
shore up a levee holding a surging river back from an isolated town.

School has been cancelled for tens of thousand of children across metro
Atlanta, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.

Aerial shots showed schools, football fields, even entire neighborhoods
submerged by the deluge, sending some unlucky residents scurrying for higher
ground.

"It's a mess all over," said Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management
Agency.

At least two people were missing, including a Tennessee man who went
swimming in an overflowing ditch on a $5 dare, and a 15-year-old Georgia
teen who never returned from a swim in the surging Chattooga River.

About 12,000 Georgia Power customers were without power late Monday.

Historic Levels of Rainfall

Some areas of the state have had 20 inches since Friday. In the northern
section, areas have experienced "historic" amounts of rain well in excess of
so-called 100-year predictions, which describe a storm with the likelihood
of happening once every century, said Stooksbury. The downpours come just
months after much of the region emerged from an epic two-year drought.

Crews in the tiny Georgia town of Trion worked to shore up a levee breached
by the Chattooga River and in danger of failing. The town evacuated more
than 1,500 residents, and Red Cross workers set up an emergency shelter.

Most of the dead were motorists trying to navigate the treacherous roadways.


Emergency workers in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville found a woman dead
in her vehicle after it was swept off a road by flooding Monday, said Capt.
Thomas Rutledge of the Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services. The
woman was identified as Seydi Burciaga, 39, who was returning home from
work.

"In my 22 years in the fire department here in Gwinnett we have not
experienced flooding to this degree," Rutledge said.

West of Atlanta, Douglas County was hit by as much as a foot of rain.
Flooding blocked more than 45 roads in the county and caused two deaths in
separate accidents. A man's body was found after his car was swept into a
creek, while a woman's body was found elsewhere after floodwaters washed out
the road she was driving on, said county spokesman Wes Tallon. Neither was
identified.

Emergency officials were often forced to improvise to rescue dozens of
people stranded in their homes and cars.

"We're using everything we can get our hands on," Tallon said. "Everything
from boats to Jet Skis to ropes to ladders."

The surging waters weren't just dangerous for drivers. A 22-year-old Alabama
man, James Dale Leigh, drowned when a pond's rain-soaked bank collapsed
beneath him, said Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin.

Authorities urged people who don't need to drive to stay home, a day after
Gov. Sonny Purdue declared a state of emergency in 17 counties.

"It's going to be a long morning. We're asking people to be patient," DOT
spokeswoman Crystal Paulk-Buchanan said.

"It's Heartbreaking"

"Devastation" was how Darrin Hughes described the rising waters that filled
his Powder Springs, Ga., home. Having suffered through flooding four years
ago, Hughes, a single father with four children, believes he's lost
everything this time.

"Well, we've lost all of our furniture and all of that. We tried to put the
pictures and so forth upstairs thinking that it would be fine up there," he
told "Early Show" anchor Maggie Rodriguez, because we lost a lot of memories
four year ago. So this time we thought we were saving them. However, when we
left our home area last night, the water was in our second level."

"It's heartbreaking," Hughes said.

"It's at least a little better, I think; we kind of know how to handle it
because of four years ago," his daughter, Kayla, told Rodriguez. "But it's
still awful because it's worse this time. It's a lot worse."

Other southeastern states were hit less severely.

In Kentucky, rescue crews went on more than a dozen runs to help stranded
people after 4 inches of rain fell on parts of Louisville on Sunday, said
city fire department spokesman Sgt. Salvador Melendez.

Water rose as high as window-level on some houses in North Carolina's Polk
County, forcing emergency officials to evacuate homes along a seven-mile
stretch of road. Flooding in more than 20 counties in western North Carolina
closed roads, delayed school and forced evacuations.

The forecast held little good news for Georgia: Another round of storms was
expected to move in Tuesday from the west.

"Don't remind me," Carroll County Emergency Management Director Tim Padgett
said of the forecast. "That's the worst news we could hear."
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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