<div><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igyXc-4XxCFyBa_vJSPGbYlcO3mwD9AUDJ100">http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igyXc-4XxCFyBa_vJSPGbYlcO3mwD9AUDJ100</a></div>
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<div><a href="http://wcco.com/national/floods.rain.georgia.2.1199172.html">http://wcco.com/national/floods.rain.georgia.2.1199172.html</a></div>
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<div class="cbstv_article_date_header">Sep 22, 2009 6:15 pm US/Central </div>
<h2>Death Toll Reaches 9 In Epic Georgia Flooding</h2>
<h3>Storms Pound Southeast; Motorists Trapped In Cars Die As 'Historic' Rains Swamp Roads</h3>
<p>ATLANTA (CBS News) --Authorities in Georgia say they have found another Southeast storm victim and the death toll is now nine.</p>
<p>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.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>
Officials are warning worried residents to wait for water levels to recede before returning to their damaged homes.<br><br>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. <br>
<br>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. <br>
<br>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. <br>
<br>Seven deaths have been confirmed in Georgia, and one in Alabama. Most of the dead were motorists trying to navigate the treacherous roadways. <br><br>Perdue urged residents to stay away from flooded areas, and told residents to resist the temptation to return to their neighborhoods. <br>
<br>He said, "I know stuff is important - but it's not nearly as important as your life. Give these waters time to recede." <br>Floodwaters around Atlanta shut down at least three interstate highways during morning rush hour. <br>
It is the latest blow to the region that's been struggling with torrential rain and deadly floods. <br><br>Hundreds of Georgia residents affected by the floods crammed into Red Cross shelters across the state. <br><br>
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. <br><br>Seventy-two-year-old Shirley Jones joined others sitting on green cots in the converted shelter, chatting about the fate of their homes. <br>
<br>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. <br><br>But this time she says rescue efforts have gone more smoothly. <br>
<br>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. <br>
<br>The teen's body was found in the Chattooga River in northwest Georgia on Tuesday morning. <br><br>The Georgia Emergency Management Agency also reported a new death west of Atlanta. No more details were immediately available. <br>
<br>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. <br><br>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. <br>
<br>"This is just a freak accident," said Pat Crawford, grandmother of Preston. "We don't understand why it happened. I guess we never will." <br><br>Officials say two men and two women died in Douglas County in separate incidents. <br>
<br>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. <br>
<br>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. <br><br>Aerial shots showed schools, parking lots and even entire neighborhoods submerged by the deluge, sending some unlucky residents scurrying for higher ground. <br>
<br>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. <br>
<br>School has been cancelled for tens of thousand of children across metro Atlanta, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann. <br><br>Aerial shots showed schools, football fields, even entire neighborhoods submerged by the deluge, sending some unlucky residents scurrying for higher ground. <br>
<br>"It's a mess all over," said Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. <br><br>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. <br>
<br>About 12,000 Georgia Power customers were without power late Monday. <br><br>Historic Levels of Rainfall <br><br>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. <br>
<br>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. <br>
<br>Most of the dead were motorists trying to navigate the treacherous roadways. <br><br>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. <br>
<br>"In my 22 years in the fire department here in Gwinnett we have not experienced flooding to this degree," Rutledge said. <br><br>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. <br>
<br>Emergency officials were often forced to improvise to rescue dozens of people stranded in their homes and cars. <br><br>"We're using everything we can get our hands on," Tallon said. "Everything from boats to Jet Skis to ropes to ladders." <br>
<br>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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>"It's going to be a long morning. We're asking people to be patient," DOT spokeswoman Crystal Paulk-Buchanan said. <br>
<br>"It's Heartbreaking" <br><br>"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. <br>
<br>"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." <br>
<br>"It's heartbreaking," Hughes said. <br><br>"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." <br>
<br>Other southeastern states were hit less severely. <br><br>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. <br>
<br>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. <br>
<br>The forecast held little good news for Georgia: Another round of storms was expected to move in Tuesday from the west. <br><br>"Don't remind me," Carroll County Emergency Management Director Tim Padgett said of the forecast. "That's the worst news we could hear." <br>
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<p>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</p></div>