Sgt. Clay Smith of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office diverts cars away from the bridge on Stevens Creek on Sunday afternoon. Sgt. Smith said that in a 20-minute period the rainfall pushed the water level up 6 inches. CINDY BLANCHARD/STAFF

Storms raise local waters

Web posted March 9, 1998

By Tracie Powell and Kent Kimes
Staff Writers

Roy Patch left home to go to Asbury Methodist Church around 10:15 a.m. Sunday morning. He returned two hours later to find his front yard completely under water.

It's not the first time, Mr. Patch said Sunday evening.

Rocky Creek, which borders Mr. Patch's south Augusta home on Rozella Street, has flooded his house twice before.

When waters threatened to spill into his home again Sunday, Mr. Patch boarded his all-terrain vehicle and drove to the creek. He had to check the water level to determine whether he and his wife needed to pack up and leave.

``It was too dangerous to be in a regular car. I got one of those six-wheel all-terrain vehicles, and it floats. You need one of those when you live right next to this creek and it floods every time you have a downpour and steady rain like we've had this weekend,'' said Mr. Patch, who has lived in the same house since 1951.

Mr. Patch's home flooded once in 1990 and again a couple of years later, he said.

Vehicles go through a flooded section of River Watch Parkway Sunday afternoon. BRANT SANDERLIN/STAFF

``If it rains tonight I'll be up all night watching that creek. It only takes one time for you to get flooded out of your house for you to know what to do,'' he said. ``The creek's down now, but if it rains tonight like it did earlier, it'll be right back in our yard again and we'll have to leave then.''

Most of the Augusta-Aiken area was under a flash-flood warning Sunday afternoon and remained under a flash-flood watch around 6 p.m. Sunday.

National Weather Service officials said the rain would taper off by this morning and will disappear by Tuesday.

``There will only be a few lingering showers in the morning,'' said National Weather Service official Kay Robinson Sunday evening.

It'll be partly cloudy this afternoon with temperatures in the mid-60s, Mr. Robinson said. Temperatures will dip into the upper 30s tonight. Tuesday will be mostly sunny with temperatures in the mid-50s.

Since it began raining Thursday, 4.18 inches of rain have fallen in the Augusta area -- 2.11 inches in the past 24 hours, Mr. Robinson said. For the month of March, 1.28 inches is normal for this time of the month.

``So you can see, we're considerably above normal for this time of the month,'' he said.

Emergency Management workers monitored water levels while local law enforcement and state troopers were busy working accidents.

And Augusta's fire department had its chiefs riding around checking flood prone areas like Rozella Street, making sure residents were safe.

School Superintendents of both Columbia and Richmond Counties said they were keeping their eyes on their schools, particularly the ones that have had flooding problems.

Neither, however, said Sunday evening that he planned to close schools. Aiken County school officials said they also didn't have plans to close schools.

``Most of what we're seeing is street flooding,'' said Pam Tucker, Richmond County's Emergency Management Director. ``We had to close off roads in several areas. We got two inches of rain in three hours which prompted the flash flood warning. That's just too much water too fast.''

Because it's been raining for the past few days, the ground is saturated and can't absorb any more water, and it has nowhere else to go, Mrs. Tucker said.

One family was told to leave their home, she said, though she couldn't recall the last name of the family or their precise street address.

Columbia County officials closed off Stevens Creek Road when at least three feet of water spilled out onto the road, said Tim Halloway, assistant superintendent of the county's roads and bridges department.

Mr. Halloway said his office has been flooded with calls, mostly about dirt roads that had been washed out.

``A lot of that's been taken care of though. But we're still out here working on Stevens Creek,'' said Mr. Halloway, adding that his crews had been out all day Sunday dealing with water problems.

Sunday's steady downpours offered no relief for low-lying flood-prone areas in Columbia County, but many residents are used to their lawns turning into lakes by now when the skies open up.

By late Sunday afternoon, as rain continued to pour and water levels kept rising, several households in the Forrest Creek subdivision -- which flooded in 1990 -- reported water up to their back porches, said Pat Tiedeman, director of Columbia County's Emergency Management Agency.

Forest Creek resident Edward Zeigler was lucky: His Crystal Creek West property wasn't under water. But many of his neighbor's lawns were submerged.

``It only takes about a day of rain and it's out of its banks,'' said Mr. Zeigler. ``It seems like it wouldn't be that hard to dredge it out a little deeper and wider.''

Mr. Zeigler said a community park in the neighborhood also floods easily.

``That sucker's under about 2 1/2 to 3 feet of water. Every time it rains for an extended period, that little park disappears,'' he said.