Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9407110108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BAINBRIDGE, GA. LENGTH: Medium
The death toll statewide rose to 28 since Tuesday, the day after Tropical Storm Alberto brought heavy downpours.
The latest bodies, discovered Sunday, were of a man who drowned when his tractor-trailer was washed off a road and a 3-year-old boy who was in a car with his mother that was swept into a creek. The mother's body was found Saturday. All three bodies were found in Americus, about 95 miles north of Bainbridge.
The Flint River was more than 7 feet above flood stage at Bainbridge and was expected to crest Wednesday at 45 feet, 20 feet above flood stage. That is nearly 5 feet higher than the record set in the 1925 flood that devastated the city that calls itself "Georgia's First Inland Port."
More than 2,000 people in low-lying West Bainbridge were told to evacuate by Saturday night, and most others in the city of 10,000 were gone or packing up Sunday.
"My granddaddy used to tell me about the Flood of '25, when you could go anywhere by boat. Well, this looks like it could be worse than that," said Mack Brock, a homebuilder who had a pole tracking the flood's rise up the back deck of his own home.
On Sunday, Bainbridge Mayor B.K. Reynolds declared a city-wide emergency and ordered a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew beginning Sunday night.
"The worst is yet to come to Bainbridge," said Gov. Zell Miller, who toured the city.
Besides the Flint, the city is along a series of lakes, creeks and sloughs that all were overflowing.
The flooded homes ranged from trailers to houses valued in six figures, built of Southern timber and featuring long docks and high backyard decks used for weekend recreation such as fishing and launching motor boats for water-skiing.
Even in cities to the north where rivers have crested, flooding was expected to linger for days because of the many swollen tributaries. Water also was draining from Lake Blackshear, north of Albany, where an earthen dam was breached Saturday.
The Flint remained at 42 feet, 22 feet above flood stage, on Sunday in Albany, about 50 miles north of Bainbridge. A crest of 45 to 46 feet was expected Sunday night.
There was one flood death last week in Alabama, and 3,200 Florida residents were evacuated from Panhandle floods.
In Florida, the Apalachicola River was expected to crest at 28 feet - 13 feet above flood stage - Sunday night at Blountstown and remain at that level for more than two days.
The muddy Apalachicola spread more than a mile into the woods on both sides of its normal riverbed. On the "Welcome to Blountstown" sign at the eastern edge of town, only "Welcome to . . ." remained above water.
In Albany, the Federal Emergency Management Agency considered bringing in mobile homes or tents and move an estimated 5,000 flood refugees from about 15 makeshift shelters in schools and churches. FEMA planned to open a disaster office in Albany today.
"This is just pitiful, ain't it?" said Francis Suggs, as she looked at the water covering her front porch in Bainbridge.
In some of her neighbors' homes, the water already was washing through first-floor windows.
Most homes had been emptied of furniture, some trucked to eastern Georgia towns or stored in vacant buildings - such as an old unused motel - in the town square that is one of the city's highest points.
Jimmy Ward and his fiancee, Dawn Harrison, trudged through waist-deep water Sunday in a last trip to salvage what they could from his home - two bags of Christmas decorations.
"It's unreal," said Harrison. "It just keeps coming."
Ward said he was finished removing his possessions, but planned to return to watch the flood's assault on the home where he has lived for 10 years.
"I want to be here when my house does go," Ward said.
Youth baseball fields, tennis courts, boat ramps and the lower part of the riverside Chamber of Commerce building were flooded.
While some residents recorded the scene with cameras, others decided it was time to go.
"We just figured we'd better get out while the getting is good," said Craig Couturier. He said his daughters, ages 13 and 12, pleaded to leave after awakening in fright Saturday after watching news reports of flooding elsewhere in Georgia.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB