Judi Whaley spent Friday cleaning up the floodwater that Tropical Storm Earl dumped in her living room from Rae's Creek. She and her family had to be evacuated by boat from the home Thursday evening when the water on Chelsea Drive got to about 3 feet. JONATHAN ERNST/STAFF

Cleanup after storm under way

Friday's more pleasant weather allows residents to begin home repairs

Web posted September 5, 1998

By Alisa DeMao
Staff Writer

Under a sun-drenched summer sky, Augustans on Friday began picking through the wreckage left by Tropical Storm Earl, scraping mud out of driveways, pulling ruined carpets onto front lawns and shoving downed trees out of roadways to await cleanup crews.

In startling contrast to the lashing winds and gray, sheeting rain of only a day before, Friday was cloudless, with a golden and blue sky above hastily receding waters that left mud and debris in their wake. With 8 1/2 inches of rain -- including 6.28 inches falling over a 24-hour period from Thursday morning to Friday morning -- Earl brought a 150-year flood to Augusta, but most of the swampy water had drained off by Friday afternoon, leaving only trickles in gutters and puddles in low-lying intersections and yards.

Officials couldn't yet estimate damages but said the cost should be less than the $2 million from a 1990 flood caused by two tropical storms -- Klaus and Marco -- that merged and stalled over the Augusta area, dropping 15 inches of rain and killing four people.

Hardest hit Thursday were traditionally flood-prone areas near Rocky Creek and Rae's Creek. When Rae's Creek spilled its banks and turned Chelsea Drive into a river, Judi Whaley's family -- and their Dalmatian, Patches -- rode to high ground in a fire department john boat.

The muddy creek flooded their yard and seeped into the house, forcing the Whaleys to escape through the living room window. In the rush to move furniture and valuables to higher surfaces, Ms. Whaley didn't even grab an extra pair of shoes. But her 11-year-old son William remembered the Boy Scout motto -- Be Prepared.

EARL'S RAMPAGE

NEWS

•Flood cleanup •Lasting impression •Residents may move

PREVIOUS REPORTS

•Earl floods region •Homes inundated •Some flooding reduced

Into his duffel bag, he stuffed an extra pair of socks; 10 pairs of underwear; Big Dog, his favorite stuffed animal; a case of Legos, two Nintendo tapes and two videotapes -- Titanic and Waterworld.

``This is my Waterworld,'' Ms. Whaley said Friday, surveying her home.

Hundreds of photographs, retrieved from a soaked box, were spread through the house on pillows, tables, countertops and in front of fans to dry. The living room carpet was muddy and spongy, but the drywall hadn't dried enough to assess the damage.

Ms. Whaley has flood insurance, but it will only cover damage to her house. If any furniture is ruined, she'll have to replace that herself. And she'll have to pay to rebuild the back yard fence for Patches -- or give him away.

``They said it would never flood again because of all the work they had done on the creek,'' she said.

Off Rozella Road near Regency Mall, residents worked throughout the day to clean carpets and floors drenched when nearby Rocky Creek flooded. Only muddied porches and soggy drainage ditches remained from the damage of the day before, when firefighters used boats to evacuate residents.

``We had about three inches in the house,'' said Roy Patch, smoking a pipe outside the home where he's lived since 1951. ``I'm trying to clean up gradually.''

Joe Miller looks over a large tree that fell during Thursday's storm and hit a side of the house he was renting. Mr. Miller and his wife, Terri, were not at home at the time of the storm and no one was injured, but the fallen tree has caused some damage to several rooms in the house. BRANT SANDERLIN/STAFF

Mr. Patch's home suffered minor damage, including a soggy air conditioner and bedroom carpet, but Thursday's flooding didn't compare to 1990, he said. He spent Thursday night with his daughter after it became apparent rising waters would reach his home.

``You hope it doesn't ever get that high,'' he said. ``You sit there and watch it and hope it doesn't get to you. We didn't leave until the last minute yesterday.''

Claude Harman, loading his truck with items from a storage shed near his Clark Drive home, said he worked until 1 a.m. Friday to clean tile floors. He was still drying carpets Friday afternoon.

Mr. Harman, who has lived there since 1952, said the area never flooded until commercial development began along nearby Gordon Highway.

``When I first came out, I could jump across Rocky Creek, and it never did flood out,'' he said.

City crews concentrated on moving downed trees and branches to make roads passable, leaving shoulders holding still-green, tangled debris that will be gathered over the coming weeks. Caked mud, scattered branches and puffy balls of pine straw filled roads where water crept to stand sometimes hip-deep at the height of the storm.

Crews blocked off Willis Foreman Road at Lace Road, where the pavement was washed out, said Mike Green, assistant director of public works. It will take two weeks to fix the road, because workers will install a new pipe system in the area.

Donald Bossard has lived in his home on Chelsea Street near Rae's Creek since 1973. He pauses to recall the floods he's been through.

One lane on Frontage Road was closed Friday morning after it was washed out by erosion. But for the most part, roadways blocked by standing pools had cleared, and creeks had subsided between red-clay banks left raw by Thursday's churning water.

Classes should resume Tuesday at Peter H. Craig Elementary School on Hale Street after flooding caused sewage backup and an extra day off Friday for students. School officials said the nearly 2 1/2 inches of water that seeped into the building would have been worse had they not installed steel flood doors five years ago.

``There was 8 inches of water outside, so the doors did their jobs,'' said Gary Zgutowicz, director of maintenance for Richmond County schools.

Cleaning crews worked Friday to sanitize the rooms for students' safe return. About 20 classrooms at T.W Josey Comprehensive High School also flooded, but cleaning crews worked through the night so the high school could open Friday.

``This is the first time anyone can remember Josey flooding,'' Mr. Zgutowicz said. ``Craig flooded in 1990. It's in a low area, been that way for years. The drains help but when you pull in that much area at one time, there's no way to prevent flooding.''

Staff writers Amy Joyner, Brandon Haddock and Faith Johnson contributed to this story