Floodwaters from the Toccoa River, which becomes the Ocoee River as it crosses into Tennessee, poured through the twin border towns of McCaysville, Georgia, and Copperhill, Tennessee, before dawn on Thursday, leaving homes and businesses under several feet of water. Rescuers pulled at least 30 people to safety in McCaysville by Thursday morning, with crews from Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina responding.
The National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency for both towns, a rare warning reserved for cases where severe threat to life and catastrophic damage are happening or about to happen. At 6:23 a.m. EST, the weather service office in Morristown, Tennessee, said that "widespread catastrophic flash flooding is ongoing with numerous businesses and homes under several feet of water" in Copperhill. At 7:01 a.m., the office said the river had "crested at just over 18 ft this morning."
The crest topped the highest mark in the gauge's historical record, 17.75 feet, set on February 16, 1990. The weather service considers 14 feet major flood stage on the Copperhill gauge. FOX Weather reported that 5 to 8 inches of rain fell over about 12 hours, pushing the river into major flood stage after it rose nearly 10 feet in about five hours.
McCaysville declared a state of emergency at about 5:20 a.m. and closed every access point to the public, including River Road, Mobile Road, Blue Ridge Drive and Georgia Highway 68. Police Chief Michael Earley said water had reached above the rooftops of some homes and that a police car floated down a downtown street. He said he did not know of any confirmed injuries, and a FOX 5 Atlanta crew saw one woman being placed into an ambulance. Fannin County Emergency Management said crews were also searching for a driver who reported being swept away in his car down a creek, and several structure fires sparked by lightning added to the strain on emergency crews.
Downstream, the Tennessee Valley Authority said its Ocoee No. 3 Dam was spilling 150,000 gallons per second and asked people to stay away from the fast-moving river. The agency said it had been running a flood control operation since November 3, holding back water at Blue Ridge Dam. Schools in Fannin and Gilmer counties closed for the day, and a shelter opened at the Fannin County Recreation Center in Blue Ridge.
The rain is over, but forecasters said the danger is not. The Morristown office urged people to "continue to exercise extreme caution and follow orders of local emergency management and law enforcement officials." A cold front behind the storm was expected to clear the region on Thursday and bring much drier air, with frost possible across far north Georgia and East Tennessee by Saturday night.
