Summerville preparing for potential floods from Helene

Sandbags filled by Summerville residents before the arrival of Tropical Storm Helene.

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. (WDEF)- With Tropical Storm Helene approaching the Tennessee Valley, some local communities are already preparing for its impacts.

One town in North Georgia knows all too well the dangers of flooding.

Summerville and Chattooga County suffered historic flooding on Labor Day Weekend in 2022 after over a foot of rain fell.

Brian Ozment, the public safety director for the city of Summerville, recalled, “The event about two years ago was a sizable flood which we have never experienced before in probably about at least a hundred years or so. We learned about what vulnerabilities and worst case scenarios were in flooding in Summerville.”

While those in Chattooga County hope the impact from Helene is not as severe as that flood in 20-22, some are not taking chances.

The city of Summerville has opened their public works department for citizens to collect sandbags for their residences and businesses, a decision the city says was made to help anyone feeling anxious about the multiple inches of rain predicted.

Ozment said, “We do some residences during just sustained heavy rains a lot of times the water will get up into them and businesses. There are also businesses and residences that water had never been into before that were inundated with flood waters back two years. So that is one of the main reasons for providing people a little bit of peace of mind by providing that for them and those services for them.”

He urges residents to heed the following safety tips.

Ozment said, “One of the major things I would say with rising water is just being very cognizant of where you are walking, where you are driving, because with high water, a lot of times you have ditches, culverts, drains that run under the road and they can get an extreme amount of force on them that can suck a person down through them before a person realizes it.”

Folks here in Summerville can go over to the public works department on Henry Street to fill up sandbags at any time before the storm.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has placed the whole state under a state of emergency.

Stick with Storm Team 12 for the latest changes in the forecast as Helene approaches the Tennessee Valley.