Moderate MAJOR Flooding in Lowndes County, Georgia

(The above is of the same house [across from my wonderful gtb's parents] I captured the other day with the shed in the backyard flooded. The water has risen drastically with all the rain since Saturday.) What a day yesterday was... thunderstorms, literally all day and into the night... tornado warned cells racing toward my county at about 65 mph... and the rain. As it turned out, the only event here was a severe warned squall line that carried 45 mph gust, torrential downpours, and frequent lightning. When I arrived home, my power was out, as well as most of the northeast part of the county. I had heard bogus reports of a tornado spotted, but with it dark and as horrendous as the rain was (not to mention the lack of signature on radar), they wouldn't have seen it. I heard unconfirmed reports of trees down. My yard looked like a pond, and I live on a high spot in my neighborhood. Given the time and the fact that I had an errand that had to be taken care of, I took the long way (the road between me and where I was going was closed because of high water at the bridge), and got Mini-Dew some dinner since I can't cook without power. I spoke with the emergency manager, who informed me that the power outage was an open circuit that was being looked at... and headed home. During that 1 1/2 hour period, water rose over the main road leading to my house, causing flash floods. When I drove by this spot, the water level sat halfway up these vehicles. I could still see the road clearly... in fact, I hadn't realized it was water over the road until I was right on top of it. If ever you come upon a flooded area, turn around; don't drown.

My office works to collect relevant data to attach to geography. Yesterday, they were working in conjunction with the emergency manager to map the rise in water since the high water marks, all over town where flooding was occurring. The flood forecast, at that time was minor, and we were trying to make the case that the flooding was more significant than minor. Because of CoCoRaHS, I was brought into it... [This is not a boat ramp... this is the neighbor's driveway and back yard.]

In a collaborative effort between the emergency manager, GIS, CoCoRaHS (that's me) and the Hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, the flood status level raised. For some reason, initially, the expectation was that yesterday, the water had crested at about 19.5', but after getting 4.06" of rainfall (just here) through yesterday and last night... with the current observed stage at 22.9' (which is almost 10' over flood stage), the expectation is that the Withlacoochee River will crest tomorrow at 24.9', which will put the water level of the river at the bridge height on the road I had to go around; however, some water levels are already above the road... Bottom line is, today, the flood warning has been changed from minor to moderate in severity.

....FORECAST FLOODING CHANGED FROM MINOR TO MODERATE SEVERITY FOR THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER NEAR VALDOSTA AFFECTING LOWNDES COUNTY ...MODERATE FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND EXPECTED TO CONTINUE...

...THE COLD FRONT HAS MOVED THROUGH THE REGION. SEVERAL INCHES OF RAIN FELL ACROSS THE ENTIRE REGION OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS. THIS RAIN WILL MAKE ITS WAY TO THE RIVERS. THIS WILL CAUSE THE RIVERS TO CONTINUE TO RISE OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS...

WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER VALDOSTA FL STAGE: 13' OBSERVED STAGE: 22.9' (FRI 05 AM) SATURDAY: 24.9' SUNDAY: 22.9' MONDAY: 22.0' TUESDAY: 20.6'

Mission accomplished.

9:58AM: Flood forecast upgraded to major.

...FORECAST FLOODING CHANGED FROM MODERATE TO MAJOR SEVERITY FOR THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER NEAR VALDOSTA AFFECTING LOWNDES COUNTY ...MODERATE FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND MAJOR FLOODING IS FORECAST...

WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER VALDOSTA FL STAGE: 13' OBSERVED STAGE: 23.6' (FRI 09 AM) SATURDAY: 25.1' SUNDAY: 24.3' MONDAY: 23.4' TUESDAY: 22.5' WEDNESDAY: 21.4'

... and rain forecasted for Sunday!

Have a great day! Stay dry!
~Dewdrop