Heavy rains flood towns, dozens rescued on Georgia-Tennessee border

McCAYSVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Thunderstorms caused record flooding overnight in twin towns straddling the Georgia-Tennessee border, submerging some buildings to their rooflines on Thursday as emergency responders rescued dozens of people.
With floodwaters receding by afternoon, residents returned to find piles of debris and the contents of businesses scattered or ruined.
The storms dropped heavy rain across a mountainous area that drains into the Toccoa River between McCaysville, Georgia, and Copperhill, Tennessee, causing life-threatening flooding on both sides. The Toccoa then flows into the Ocoee River, where the Tennessee Valley Authority was managing high water levels at three of its hydroelectric dams.
As much as 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 centimeters) fell overnight between the north Georgia towns of Blue Ridge and Ellijay, and runoff from uncontrolled streams swelled the rivers below, according to the TVA.
The Toccoa River reached a record high Thursday morning of 18 feet (5.5 meters), according to a river gauge in Copperhill, where fewer than 500 people live across from McCaysville, home to about 1,000. Copperhill officials urged people to take shelter in either town’s City Hall as the river reached 2 feet (0.6 meters) above the level forecasters consider “catastrophic.”
“It’s a little bit heartbreaking,” said Hugh Rogers, who has owned McCaysville Drug & Gun since 1997.
Rogers said he got a call around 2:30 a.m. Thursday that the water was rising, and when he arrived at the store about an hour later, the water inside was about 4 or 5 feet (1.2 or 1.5 meters) deep, knocking over shelves and destroying about $200,000 or $300,000 worth of inventory.
But Rogers said he considers himself luckier than others whose homes were damaged, and that family, friends and coworkers were planning to “come out strong” on Friday to help him clean up.