Anyone who's seen the news lately has likely heard the story and seen some of the footage - Atlanta is flooded. It seems impossible. Atlanta is not in really in an area anyone would consider a flood plain. There is only one major river that flows through the city, and it's not even big enough to be navigable for shipping. There weren't any hurricanes coming ashore. So what happened?... and what is the state leadership doing?

Like several states in the southeast, Georgia is mostly clay. The dirt here (if you want to call it that) is bright reddish orange, very fine, and packs densely. It it can be molded into shapes and fired in a kiln to make pottery. As such, it does not absorb or leach water very well. So when the low pressure system stalled, the rains came... and didn't stop.... for days. The ground absorbed what it could, and the rest flowed over the ground and into streams, seeking lower ground.

Streams swelled their banks and the water kept rising. The news coverage described the devastation. To get a feel for how bad it was, there are some videos here and here. Having seen the videos, it doesn't come anywhere close to seeing it with your own eyes. For a side by side comparison, here is an area that is about 100 yds from the banks of stream during the flooding and a day later after waters receded:





I also posted my own personal video here. That stream is normally 3-4 feet wide and 20 feet lower...

One would hope the Governor would be on top of this, providing leadership and getting in front of a problem that we were warned late last week would be occuring. Instead, we got a scolding. We were told to stay off the roads and not drive through the water. In a situation sadly similar to Bush/Katrina, there were very few shelters set up, and plans for helping those who had to be evacuated weren't really set into motion until today, two days after the waters rose. Governor Sonny Perdue claimed he really didn't get a feel for the extent of the devastation until he toured the area by helicopter (what? - he managed to miss the non-stop coverage on TV?). It moved him to ask the Federal government for:
$16 million dollars.

We have 17 counties in various states of destruction, and he asks for $16M?? The state insurance commissioner stated he believed that there will be $250M in damages, which seems woefully low as well. There are entire neighborhoods under water, and many of those homes will require a half million each for repairs/replacement. Very few (if any) of these people have flood insurance. Who would think to get it when the closest water is a tiny stream a quarter mile away? There are bridges out, and roads washed away. Those will require emergency funds to repair. The insurance commissioner's solution to those whose homes were flooded? Bleach and a spray bottle. I kid you not. He also absolved himself and the state of all responsibility for the general lack of flood insurance among the residents by saying that it was the federal government's jurisdiction.

One school in Cobb County (Clarkdale) is completely flooded, and is likely a total loss. They DO have flood insurance. However, the deductible is one million dollars. For something like a school, that doesn't seem like a lot, except that the county - home to some of Atlanta's richest residents - is millions of dollars in debt. Why? The county is also a Republican stronghold, home to the "cut my taxes" crowd. Do the math; you get what you pay for.

Even before the flood, another problem for the Atlanta area has been the aging sewage system. When it was originally built (when the city was much smaller), there didn't seem to be a problem with having the street storm drains feed into the same lines as the sewers. With growth, however, the system is easily overtaxed. There have been numerous stories over the years of heavy rains causing the manholes to become fecal fountains in low lying areas. Again - low taxes and tax breaks to encourage growth have resulted in continuing problems with the sewer system.

Naturally, with this kind of flooding, you can assume there will be unpleasant things in the flood waters. To make matters MUCH worse, the city's sewage treatment plant is flooded and nonoperational. This means that over 100 million gallons of raw sewage is being dumped into the Chattahoochee river on a daily basis, for at least the next several days. This bio-hazard flood will be paying a visit to the riverbanks along GA and AL all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. With all of floodwaters seeking lower ground, it's pretty much a given that there will be flooding downstream in the next couple days, and that runoff will be disgusting.

It was only two years ago that GA was 60 days away from the taps running dry. Sonny Perdue's answer to the problem was to stage a prayer vigil on the state capital steps. Today we have the opposite problem, and the governor's lack of any substantial leadership is once again glaring. Between these two crises, we've had a Republican state congress that has continued to roll back taxes and state programs, preventing many of the infrastructure fixes that might've helped keep matters from getting worse.

I'd like to think that these events might open the eyes of the voters next election. I doubt it. I shudder to think what the state of the state will be like in a few more years. I hope I'm not here to find out.