|
| |
September 2009 Flood in North Georgia
Introduction
Since its beginnings in the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, NRCS has continued
its work to help care for our nation's natural resources. Conservation measures
reduce soil erosion, improve water quality, provide habitat for wildlife and
help farmers improve the natural resources on their lands for the benefit of all
citizens.
|
Local communities in Georgia, with USDA Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) assistance, have constructed
over 350 dams in since 1953. Many are nearing the end of their
50-year design life.
Rehabilitation of these dams is needed to address
critical public health and safety issues in these communities. In
1978, the Georgia General Assembly passed dam safety legislation in
response to the 1977 Kelly Barnes Dam Failure at Toccoa Falls
College, which resulted in 39 fatalities. The resulting Georgia Safe
Dams Law exempted NRCS dams because of the agency’s superior design
standards.
In 1995, however, the Georgia General Assembly began
to recognize that time would take its toll even on NRCS assisted
project dams. The exemption was extended one last time and expired
November 1, 2000.
Through the Watershed Rehabilitation Program, NRCS
can provide technical and financial assistance to communities for
the rehabilitation of high hazard dams.
Another program administered by NRCS is the
Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP). NRCS assistance under
EWP can help with the removal of debris (broken, hanging, and
undercut trees) or impending debris along streams, creeks, or
bridges that pose a threat to life or property. Assistance can also
be provided for severe erosion along stream banks that poses an
immediate danger to house, non-federal roads and other
infrastructure.
Local sponsors must submit their letter of
application by November 22, 2009 for this flood event.
Click here for a sample letter.
News Releases
Initial Emergency Funding Received
- September 28, 2009
NRCS Dam Assessment now in Progress - September 23, 2009
Fact Sheets
Georgia 2009 Flood Emergency Watershed Protection Fact Sheet (151 KB)
Georgia Emergency
Watershed Protection Tri-Fold (123 KB)
Where to Get Assistance
If you are a potential applicant, you may want to call or visit your
local office to find out if you are eligible for assistance. The
local office contact information is listed below.
If you are a sponsor, click here for a sample letter of application.
Please page down to view flood damage photos. You may also want to
view photos on www.weather.com
Link to Georgia Emergency
Management Agency Site
|
7-Day
Rainfall Map
This map
shows the rainfall over a 7-day period. The light purple shows the
hardest hit counties. More than 20 inches of rain fell in this area.
The black triangles indicate the locations of NRCS Watershed dams.
NRCS is in the process of inspecting the dams to assess any damage
that may have occurred to them. If they have sustained damage,
repairs will be made to ensure that they function in another flood
event.
NRCS has built 357 watershed dams in Georgia;
250 of them are in the northern part of the state. NRCS personnel
are in the process of inspecting these dams to assess storm damage.
So far, all of the dams have functioned as planned with an estimated
60 of them activating their emergency overflow spillways. (See video
and photos below.)
None of the dams have breached even though they
were not designed for a storm of this magnitude.
Page down to see photos of the spillway in
action or click on the link on the left side of the page.
Reports
Issue 1 of the NRCS Georgia Flood Report
Videos
Link to
video showing an activated spillway directing flood waters around a
home in Carroll County. (This may take awhile to load.) |
The September 2009 Flood
The torrential rains
that have flooded a 23-county region in Georgia have caused a tremendous amount
of damage. The damage would have been much worse; however, if there were no
watershed dams in Georgia. Counties affected by the storm are:
Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga,
Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Crawford, DeKalb, Douglas, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett,
Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Stephens and Walker.
Georgia has about 357 watershed dams-and more than 250 of them in the northern
part of the state. They are located in the following counties: Banks, Barrow,
Bartow, Carroll, Catooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Cobb, Dawson, Douglas, Elbert,
Forsythe, Franklin, Fulton, Gilmer, Gordon, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall,
Jackson, Lumpkin, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Pickens, Putnam, Rabun, Stephens, Towns,
and White. These dams
are designed to store runoff from heavy rainfall events. Water is captured in a
flood storage pool and released slowly through a pipe system in the dam. When
runoff excess the designed storage capacity of the dam, excess water flows
through an auxiliary spillway to prevent water overtopping the dam and possibly
causing a breach. A dam is said to breach when it can no longer hold water and
collapses. None of Georgia's dams have breached due to this storm event.
 
Structure No. 19 on the Little Tallapoosa River is behind the trees in this
photo. You can just see the rise of the auxiliary spillway. This home is to the
right. The design causes the water to safely flow around the house (see photo
below) and down through the trees in the last photo.
 
These photos show an auxilliary spillway in action directing water around this
home in Carroll County. the The video link below shows the water flowing. It may
take a few minutes to load. This is Structure No. 19 on the Little Tallapoosa
River.
Link to video showing
an activated spillway directing flood waters around a home in Carroll County.
Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Law
In 1944, Congress established the Watershed Protection and Flood
Prevention Program through the Flood Control Act of 1944 and the Watershed
Protection and Flood Prevention Act of 1954 (Public Law 83-566).
The Watershed Protection and Flood
Prevention Program assists Federal, State, local agencies, local
government sponsors, tribal governments, and program participants in
implementing watershed protection practices.
The
purpose of the program is to protect and restore watersheds from damage
caused by erosion, floodwater, and sediment, to conserve and develop
water and land resources, and solve natural resource and related
economic problems on a watershed basis.
The program provides technical
and financial assistance to local project sponsors, builds partnerships,
and requires local and state funding contribution. The watershed
program is a unique and flexible approach to natural resource planning and
management, focusing on proper land use and the installation of
conservation practices.
< Back to ...
| |
|
About Us
Back to Top