This video shows flooding along Hardman Road on the northern end of Habersham County and at Pitts Park in Clarkesville. (Video by: Israel Segers, Sheaflogic, LLC)
Saturday marks a week since the remnants of Hurricane Delta swept through Northeast Georgia. The storm that blew in from the Gulf caused extensive local flooding and damage. Habersham was among the hardest-hit counties in the region, sustaining over $5.25 million in damage, according to the latest estimates released by the county on Friday.
Delta caused approximately $2.5 million worth of damage in unincorporated areas of the county. Demorest was the hardest-hit city, reporting an estimated $1.2 million in damages. Cornelia sustained approximately $635,000 in storm damage and Clarkesville estimated its cost of repairs at around $80,000. Baldwin sustained approximately $45,000 in damage. [Damage assessments were not immediately available for Alto, Mt. Airy, and Tallulah Falls.]
None of those figures include how much private property was damaged or destroyed. Habersham County Emergency Management has been collecting those figures to submit to the state. Even without those assessments, Habersham County Public Information Officer Carolyn McDuffie says, “This is the largest recovery on record.”
Digging out from Delta
Since the Delta deluge that dumped over 8 inches of rain on Habersham Oct. 10-11, people have been trying to dig their way out from under the mud and debris. Public works crews have been working overtime alongside private contractors to repair the fractured infrastructure.
The storm damaged 73 roads in Habersham and threatened local water supplies. It flooded several public facilities and destroyed a number of private homes and vehicles. Schools, which were scheduled to reopen on Oct. 15 after fall break, were closed for the remainder of this week due to poor road conditions and water outages.
Much of that damage has now been repaired.
As of late Friday, McDuffie reported 41 of the 53 county-owned roads that were damaged are now fixed. Work on the remaining twelve will take time, particularly New Liberty Road on the north end of the county. Transportation officials estimate it will cost $1 million to repair. Currently, traffic is down to one lane on New Liberty near Waco Smith Road but beginning on Wednesday, Oct. 21, the county will set up a detour noting that, while inconvenient, it’s the safest thing to do.
Amy’s Creek Road washed out in two places. County crews hope to have repairs completed in time for school bus traffic to pass through the area on Monday. However, afternoon busses could be affected by the ongoing roadwork.
Stewart Lane is currently closed but is expected to be passable by this weekend.
With the exception of New Liberty, the county expects to have all of its roads repaired by Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Several roads in Cornelia are closed for long-term repairs and seven private roads in the county are in various states of repair. The Soque Trail and Cross Creek area is bidding their construction and will take more time to open, says McDuffie. There are approximately 50 homes in the Soque Trail subdivision area. Law enforcement and emergency services are conducting welfare checks to ensure affected residents have supplies and medical attention if they still remain isolated from the road system, she says.
Water issues nearly resolved
There was encouraging news Friday from Demorest. “We have no road closings and all water has been restored except to Soque Trails [subdivision],” says Demorest City Manager Kim Simonds.
Water customers in Demorest and Baldwin are now free to resume normal water use. The Baldwin water plant is back up to full production and Demorest has repaired its broken water lines.
Although its water plant was not affected by the storm, Cornelia is asking its customers to continue to conserve water through Monday, Oct. 19. The city supplied water to Baldwin through Thursday and now its tanks are below half full. “We will not be able to fill them up until this weekend when Fieldale shuts down for the week,” explains Cornelia City Manager Donald Anderson.
Clarkesville suffered some damage at the raw water intake at the water plant, but city manager Keith Dickerson says it is operational.
Additional cleanup
In Clarkesville, they are still evaluating the damage and cost of repairs. Trees that were down and across streets have been cleared from the roads. Pitts Park and the Greenway Trail both remain covered in silt and have a large amount of debris that will be removed “as soon as we can,” says Dickerson. Both of those public outdoor recreation areas sit adjacent to the Soque River and while it’s no surprise that they flooded, longtime residents say they’ve never seen the flooding at Pitts Park as bad as it was during Delta.
“We have had to clean Pitts park twice this year due to flooding and use our contractor ESG that handles public works to do the additional cleanup,” the city manager says. “The only additional cost is the replacement of mulch on the playgrounds for $2,500.00.”
Despite the costs and the cleanup, no one reported any serious injuries in Habersham County as a result of storms spawned by the remnants of Hurricane Delta. Local first responders received national attention when a video of them rescuing people from the rising floodwaters was featured on ABC World News Tonight. Closer to home, people continue to praise their exhaustive, often heroic efforts.
County manager Phil Sutton says, “Habersham County would like to commend all E-911 staff, Sheriff’s Department Law Enforcement staff, Emergency Services staff including fire and emergency medical services, and importantly our Road Maintenance staff for their incredible work in the Hurricane Delta recovery process.”
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