CHAPTER ONE: NOT LIKE OTHER STORMS 

 

 

Though Chatham County is accustomed to the wind damage of tropical storms, Tropical Storm Debby was different, dropping buckets of rain that raised the Ogeechee River to near-record levels, flooding neighborhoods and sparking emergency rescues. 

Debby doused southeast Georgia with heavy rainfalls during the first week of August, and while the wind damage in our area was minimal, the excess rainwater led to the flooding of the Ogeechee River in the days that followed.  

Debby’s path took her through the Florida panhandle, across Georgia, and eventually directly through Chatham County as she made her way back to the coast. Along her path, the rains fell.  

According to the National Weather Service in Charleston, by Aug. 8, Debby had dropped up to 11.03 inches of rain on some parts of Chatham County. Effingham County saw 13.72 inches of rain in Rincon. In Bryan County, Eden's rainfall gauge read 11.21. 

As Debby moved out of Chatham County, the rainfall she left behind started making its way down the Ogeechee River. Around Aug. 8, the National Water Prediction Service gauges in the Ogeechee began to spike near Eden. 

 

 

By Aug. 10, the river had crested at 17.97 feet at the Eden gauge, nearly 8 feet higher than average, and 5 feet shy of the highest recorded level. Water from the river began to inundate nearby neighborhoods, prompting water rescues, road closures due to flooding, and a mobilization of resources from local, state, and federal emergency management agencies. The Ogeechee didn’t return to typical levels until Aug. 19. 

Chatham Emergency Management Agency had been monitoring the storm since its formation in the Atlantic in early August, preparing for whatever might come. For CEMA, being prepared to keep our community informed and safe doesn’t blow in with a storm; for CEMA, being prepared is Job Number One, around the clock, 365 days a year. 

 

Continue reading:

Chapter 2: CEMA and the EOC