“A Twenty-First-Century Catastrophe” - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 178

US Geological Survey crews monitored three hundred streamgages—devices that
measure the flow of streams in real time—across Georgia. The numbers were stunning.
On September 22, the USGS measured water flowing down Sweetwater Creek at
twenty-eight thousand cubic feet per second and thirteen feet above flood stage, the
greatest flow ever recorded there. The Chattahoochee River rose to heights not seen
since 1919. Studying historical patterns, USGS discovered that the chance of a flood of
this magnitude hitting this region was 1 in 10,000.
By September 23, the rains eased and the clouds over Georgia began to dissipate.
Eleven people were dead, sixteen thousand were homeless, and some thirty thousand
were let without electricity. Seventeen bridges across the state were closed, as were
stretches of interstate highways. A large sewage treatment plant north of the city was
flooded, which caused millions of dollars in damage and released untreated sewage
into residential neighborhoods, leading to fears of mass contamination. (The rains also
added more than three feet of water to Lake Lanier and returned the reservoir to
“full pool” in October. Allatoona Lake, nearby, rose more than thirteen feet over its
full pool.) The flood caused at least $250 million worth of damage across seventeen
counties, mostly to homeowners who did not have flood insurance. Governor Perdue,
who had prayed for rain two years earlier, declared a state of emergency and requested
$16.35 million in federal assistance.
“The flooding in Atlanta is certainly near the top of the list of the worst floods in the
United States during the last hundred years,” said Robert Holmes , the USGS National
Flood Program coordinator.
Meteorologists concluded that the eight days of steady rain that caused the 2009 Ge-
orgia flood was an unusual storm pattern for the Southeast. It raised the question of
whether the region will become more prone to extreme shifts in weather—years of
drought followed by prolonged drenching and floods—as the climate warms in coming
decades. This is a question people around the world are starting to ask: its answer, as yet
unknown, will have major implications for how runoff is managed and how flood con-
trols are built.
In a sign of the new hydrologic reality, as some places grapple with devastating
drought, others are facing unprecedented floods, and some—such as Georgia, Texas, or
Australia—are facing both.
ACTS OF GOD, ACTS OF MEN
Floods are acts of God; flood damages result from acts of men.