1,000-Year Flood Swamps McCaysville and Copperhill Rail Towns

A storm system dropped what the National Weather Service calls a catastrophic 1,000-year flood on the Tennessee-Georgia state line, leaving the twin tourist towns of McCaysville, Georgia, and Copperhill, Tennessee, under mud. Downtown access is restricted and a dusk-to-dawn curfew is in place.

The same system moved up the Eastern Seaboard on Friday, and flood advisories went out for coastal areas from North Carolina to Massachusetts, ABC News reported.

How much rain fell on the Toccoa River

The weather service office in Atlanta said rainfall across the mountain watershed around the Toccoa River reached 10.28 inches in six hours and 11.19 inches over 12 hours, ending Thursday morning. The Toccoa runs into the Ocoee River, where the Tennessee Valley Authority was managing high water at three of its hydroelectric dams.

Swift-water rescue teams from Georgia and Tennessee pulled dozens of people from the water before it went down. When it did, downtown streets were covered in mud and the local water treatment plant was out of service.

A 1,000-year event is one with a 0.1% chance, or 1 in 1,000, of happening in a given place in any year. The weather service said more than one such event can still occur in the same year.

A second flood in three months

The towns are still recovering from an early August flood that the weather service rated a 1-in-500 year event. McCaysville had reopened its renovated police building only the week before. Police Chief Michael Otis Earley said his department “lost virtually everything” in the new flood.

Earley said Friday that only authorized personnel, business owners and residents were allowed downtown. The Copperhill General Store said on social media that nearly all of its goods were coated in mud.

At least one death has been connected to the flooding. A 56-year-old woman died after apparently trying to drive through floodwater in a mountainous part of Murray County, Georgia, Sheriff Jimmy Davenport said. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for four counties so that state resources can be sent.

What it means for visitors

McCaysville has about 1,000 residents and Copperhill fewer than 500, and much of their business comes from scenic train trips. The Blue Ridge Railway runs on the Georgia side and the Copperhill Special on the Tennessee side. Both trains carry passengers past river and mountain views, then stop so riders can visit the towns’ restaurants and shops.

With the downtown closed to the public, a curfew in force and the water plant down, the stopover that draws those riders is unavailable for now.

Flooding reaches Cape Cod

The storm also hit New England on Friday. In Falmouth, Massachusetts, at the western end of Cape Cod, heavy rain flooded roads across town and the police department’s headquarters. Police Chief Jeffrey A. Lourie asked residents to stay home.

Source: ABC News