Rescues continue in McCaysville, people still trapped

Morning's breaking news. Massive flooding leading to evacuations in North Georgia. The overnight storms turned roads into rivers and washed out bridges. In fact, just look at this intersection, a flooded intersection in downtown McCaseville. The water nearly covering a street sign there. You can see it in the background. Schools in Fannin and Gilmer counties will be closed today. Yeah, good news. Mark Teichner is live in hard-hit McCaseville, joining us with more. And Mark, you have to fight just to be able to get there. It was pretty difficult to get there. A lot of roads that were closed, flooding, but nothing compares to what we are looking at right here in downtown McKaysville. And just kind of to give you an idea, this is downhill on both sides, kind of in a valley where the Toccoa River comes in, and it gives you why there would be a flooding situation here. But they have done a number of river rescues, and there's another rescue crew going out right now. These guys just arrived. They're actually, believe it or not, From Tennessee, we've got folks who have come in from North Carolina as well as Georgia, all of them trying to do what they can to go forward. Catch these people that are stranded in their homes. The water, we have been told, reaches above the roof line for some of these houses. Alex said that the flooding level had already gotten to about 16 or so feet, which gives you an idea of just how deep the water is. The chief says that he's seen one of his squad cars, believe it or not, floating down the street as a result of this water. All of this started last night at about 10 or so. That's when it started to rain. It didn't start flooding, though, until early this morning. And when it really got bad was in those early morning hours. And it came on them really quickly. And that's why they're now sort of in this emergency situation where they're going out trying to rescue these folks. We know that they've rescued already at least 30 people. A lot of those folks being taken to the rec center. We did manage to talk with a man who was... He was in fact rescued along with his dog Bella and his cat Kiki. He was pretty happy to be on safe and sound ground. So listen to him and listen to the chief about how they're trying to get all this done. I got dressed and went outside. The water was this deep and I couldn't get my truck out. So I had to leave my truck. Then the sheriff's deputies knocked on the front door and said, you need to evacuate now. And he said, you probably have to wait to water, but by the time my wife got dressed and I got the animals, they had to send a boat for us. We're actively trying to water rescue people, but we still got several people trapped in homes that we're trying to get to, and the water keeps rising, so just bear with us as much as you can, and please say a prayer for them and their families. Yeah, and we again just saw another one of those river rescue crews going out trying to bring people to safety. As far as injuries, the chief didn't know of any specifically, but right when we were getting ready to go on at 6 o'clock, I saw someone loaded up into an ambulance. She seemed to be okay, but I couldn't get real close to figure out how badly injured she was. Hopefully, she was just being checked out. If we do get an update from the chief about injuries, we'll, of course, bring them to you. And we'll be on this throughout the morning. For now, though, that's the latest from here in McAdenville. I'm Mark Teichner for Good Day Atlanta. Incredible scene up there, Mark. Thank you for that. Now, more video from the hardest-hit areas. This is video from the area near Bushy Head Road and Boardstown Road. That's in Fannin County. Take a look there. Now, Boardstown Road is actually closed due to the washout at Sugar Creek. And then further down the road, there's been a mudslide in that area. There's also a complete washout on Lucius Road near Highway 76. That's in Cherry Log. The floodwaters had a family stranded in their home. New rainfall totals this morning indicate that this was a record rainfall event. Stay with Good Day Atlanta as we will continue to follow this breaking situation. Elyse?