2 Killed, 1 Missing as Storms Drench Southeast
By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press Writer
13 mins ago
ATLANTA – At least two people died in floodwaters in Georgia and a Tennessee man was missing after swimming into an overflowing ditch on a dare as rows of thunderstorms drenched the Southeast, submerging some major highways in the Atlanta area and prompting flood warnings Monday.
Forecasters issued flood alerts for parts of Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia as more rain fell after days of storms that have saturated the ground. As much as 20 inches had fallen in three days in the Atlanta metro area.
The "persistent tropical system" that has been hovering over the region for the last week could dump another four inches on north Georgia overnight Monday with isolated areas possibly seeing even higher rainfall levels, said National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Taylor. Rains were expected to taper off starting Wednesday, he said.
Rescuers in Tennessee were searching for a Chattanooga man who was swept into a culvert Sunday after boasting to friends and relatives that he could swim across a flooded ditch alongside his house for $5. The man's nephew identified him as 46-year-old Sylvester Kitchens.
Firefighters rescued another man who also tried to swim the ditch, Albert Miller. Miller was found clinging to a fence in the water near where the water empties into the culvert, said Fire Department spokesman Bruce Garner. Miller was taken to the hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.
The nephew, 22-year-old Leslie Townsend, said Kitchens was swept away when he tried to grab onto a garden hose that Townsend threw to him.
Emergency workers in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville found a woman dead in her sunken vehicle after it was swept off a road by flooding Monday, said Capt. Thomas Rutledge of the Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services. He had no further information about the woman.
"In my 22 years in the fire department here in Gwinnett we have not experienced flooding to this degree," Rutledge aid.
One of the hardest-hit areas is Douglas County west of Atlanta, which forecasters say was hit by as much as a foot of rain during the deluge. The rains blocked more than 45 roads in the county and caused the death of a man whose body was found downstream after his car was swept from the road into a creek, said county spokesman Wes Tallon.
He said emergency officials have rescued dozens of people stranded in their homes and cars by rising waters.
"We're using everything we can get our hands on," Tallon said. "Everything from boats to Jet Skis to ropes to ladders."
By midday Monday, authorities were shifting from rescue mode to damage assessment, Rutledge said, but he added that they were bracing for the possibility of more problems as more storms were expected to move into the area.
In Kentucky, thunderstorms dumped about 4 inches of rain on parts of Louisville in a single day Sunday. Flash flooding caused fire and rescue personnel to make more than a dozen runs to assist people stranded in vehicles, said Louisville fire department spokesman Sgt. Salvador Melendez. A fire that broke out Sunday night at an apartment complex appeared to be caused by lightning, Melendez said. A firefighter suffered burns to his neck, he said.
Flooding in more than 20 counties in western North Carolina closed roads, delayed school and forced evacuations.
The rolling storms shut down school systems in five north Georgia counties. Water also flooded homes, washed out some roads and left standing pools on some busy metro Atlanta highways.
Flash flood watches were issued Monday for much of Alabama, where the National Weather Service said as much as a foot of rain fell in less than 24 hours in some northern parts of the state. School officials in Bibb County, about 50 miles southwest of Birmingham, called off classes for fear their 3,600 students wouldn't be able to get home later Monday.
Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency says the rains caused a mudslide that blocked part of Stone Mountain Freeway east of Atlanta. She urged residents to stay home if they don't have to drive.
Trisha Palmer of the National Weather Service says that as much as 20 inches of rain has fallen on the metro Atlanta area since Friday. She said parts of Douglas and Carroll counties have received more than a foot of rain in the last day alone. As of 8 a.m. Monday, Chattanooga had received 4.93 inches of rain in 24 hours.
