McCaysville flood submerges downtown shops

The 100-year rain or flood, and we've had two in three months. I don't know what God's trying to tell me, but we've had two in the past three months. Within five hours, the town was actively flooded. And it's devastating to the community. Dangerous flooding still impacting North Georgia. Crews rescuing dozens of people from their homes in the McKaysville area. Fannin and Gilmer County is the hardest hit with overnight evacuations, rescues, a city closure and police warnings to stay off the roads. For the second time in three months, severe flooding has impacted the North Georgia city of McKaysville. Good evening. Thanks so much for joining us here for Fox 5 News at 5. I'm Tom Haines. I'm Courtney Bryant. The police chief says the high water led to more than 80 people having to be rescued from their homes. Let's get out to Fox 5's Ray Urena live in downtown McKaysville with more on the ongoing efforts. Ray? According to him right now, the police chief tells us that the city was just getting back on its feet following that flooding from three months ago back in August. But I just want you to take a look at all this debris that has been left over from this morning and throughout the night, early and early morning. Crews were busy getting people out who were not able to evacuate in time. Within five hours, the town was actively flooded. The U.S. Army helicopter circles above McKaysville as rescue efforts continued Thursday morning. The Toccoa River, which runs through the city, crested at a record 18 feet amid several inches of rain in the surrounding mountains. We've had two of those in the past three months. They call it the hundred-year rain or flood, and we've had two in three months. I don't know what God's trying to tell me. But we've had two in the past three months. McKaysville Police Chief Michael Early says about 46 people had to be rescued from their homes. We did not have or sustain any major injuries. There was a few people took to the hospital. I believe a lot of that was more of hypothermia and just in shock. The neighbor came and knocked on our door and said, you need to move your truck because the water's coming up fast. Mike Nichol was one of the residents who were forced to leave their homes behind. By the time 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. The chief says the police department and the post office had just reopened following the August flood. Now the city must brace for yet another lengthy cleanup. As the water keeps coming down, we're just going to continue doing our efforts to try to see and check on our residents inside those homes to make sure nobody was in those homes and left behind. Right now, a boil water notice is in effect for the city of McKaysville. The police chief says that starting tomorrow at 9 a.m., the city will be distributing water for the people who are serviced by their water system near City Hall. Reporting live in McKaysville, Ray Urena, Fox 5 News. Wow, those people out there are going to have a lot of cleaning up to do. Ray, thanks. And this flooding all happened relatively quickly last night, unfolding in just a matter of hours. We now go to Fox 5 Storm Team Meteorologist Lauren Robinson, who is also in McCaysville for us tonight. Lauren, how did all this happen? Hey, Tom and Courtney, that's right. I'm also in McCaysville, not too far from where we just saw Ray Urena. Now, let's go ahead and take a look, though, at some of that cleanup that's happening behind me. And we can backtrack a bit to see how this happened. But first, there's all of this debris that's piled up over the Toccoa River here. We go across the river and the power was recently turned back on. And as we take a look at the subway building here right on the river, you can see some watermarks where the flooding was over six feet tall. Along some of these areas, people were flooded out of their homes. Now here we get to well, how did this happen over the last 24 to 48 hours? Roughly since Tuesday night, McCaseville only saw two to three inches of rainfall. That's not jaw dropping, but areas just south of here, roughly Fannin and Gilmer counties, the Blue Ridge area, those areas saw six to nine inches of rainfall. And what happened? Well, it all moved from that high country down slope into McCaysville in kind of a bowl, Now let's move over to a map from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This was released this morning showing the Toccoa River gauge hit record-breaking levels. It reached over 18 feet at 6 o'clock this morning, and that broke our previous record Over 17.8 feet, 17.75, which was last set in 1990. In 1990, so. So again, the river is now starting to recede. Crews are hard at work to clean up all of the mess behind it. But as I was explaining, this is a flood-prone area and this continues to be a problem. So I'll be here through the rest of the afternoon tracking what's going on. Right now, reporting from McCaysville, I'm meteorologist Lauren Robinson for Fox 5 News. Yeah, Lauren, just incredible how quickly that flooding started to become an issue for people out there. Lauren, thanks. We continue our team coverage tonight with Fox 5's Kevin Stewart. He is live tonight in Cooper Hill, Tennessee. Kevin, how are the businesses up there handling the historic flooding? Working hard trying to clean up. We're right on the Georgia-Tennessee line, about 50 yards away from the Toccoa River. And I want to show you something, how strong Mother Nature is. This building, you can see the water smashed out this glass and separated the facade of this building. This water, this flood water, was over six feet tall. I'm six foot two, and you can see water lines and how it just separated and pushed all this stuff out. Downtown McKaysville, Georgia. Now it's a tourism community. And it's Twin City, Copper Hill, Tennessee. It's just a really small, cute little town that people enjoy and love. Everywhere you look, along the swollen banks of the Toccoa River, mud, debris. Water oozing from the cracks in this building and the small businesses trying to clean up. I have no words. Wondering how they will survive. I had put a coffee shop back there. Or if they will survive. We didn't have insurance. We weren't able to apply for it. College student and young entrepreneur Diana Liao looks at what's left of her new coffee shop tucked in her mom's Mexican restaurant. She calls the river a blessing and a curse. Because, you know, when you want to relax, you go sit by the river, but... You don't expect this to happen to your business. 30 years in business for McKaysville Drug and Guns. The river flooded earlier this year and he made it out okay. Not so much this time. How are you going to get out and get through this now? Day at a time McKaysville Mayor Terry Arp says flooding here sadly is nothing new. It's flooded three times this year. Nothing like this though. And then there was the flood of 1990. Communities bounced back with investment and emerged as a mountain tourist spot. Putting in all those places, there was nowhere to eat down here, nowhere. And now we're kind of right back to where we were again, but we're going to come back. We are. And you can hear the construction, the beeping going on as they clean up and look to build back. I want to make a note of this. This was a coffee shop The business just shut down just a week ago. I had a chance to talk to the landlord. He says they're still trying to sell this building. He says he does have insurance. So this is the story. We'll continue to follow throughout the day and evening. But for now, we're live in Cooper Hill, Tennessee. Kevin Stewart, Fox 5 News. Yeah, your heart goes out to those folks who really put everything they have into those shops. And we wish them well on their road to recovery. Kevin, thanks. And let's... Take you up to Lake Lanier now for this live look at how things are looking up there. No rain in that area tonight, but gosh, they certainly got their fair share out in McKaysville. Yeah, and if there's any slice of good news is that today, Jonathan, was a clear, sunny, dry day in order for those people to start the cleanup process. I was in the studio late last night and through the early morning hours tracking what was a relentless and restless storm. There is good news as we take you live up there once again from our GDOT camera. This is State Route 5 and Tennessee Ave at the intersection there. A road that's been closed down for the better part now of some 20 hours. Now reopening and that bridge GDOT has reopened the bridge that goes over the infamous Toccoa River. After inspecting it there. So yes, today a brighter day so that recovery can begin, which that will likely be a month or even years long effort. There is still rain out on the radar today as we take a look at Fox 5 live weather radar it is our easternmost zones to the south and to the east I-85. They're dealing with more showers and storms after getting their fair share yesterday. Those of you across Jasper, Putnam County is getting some heavier downpours. Those are gliding. Cross parts of Lake Lanier or I should say Lake Oconee and moving farther to the north there. For those of you in southern parts of Oglethorpe County, you're getting in on some showers, some lighter activity up there in Lexington. It looks like the center of the activity is right honed in on Greene County. As we go through the remainder of the afternoon, we'll continue to see showers turn and move through this area before really kind of fizzling out during the evening as they aim towards the Georgia South Carolina state line. In terms of the cloud cover, we were able to break free here in the metro area. That doesn't mean that A few clouds may not try to come back through the overnight hours and that's the same path that those showers will take. They'll continue to develop down to the south and they'll move to the north and to the east as we go through the wee hours of your Friday morning. When you wake up tomorrow morning, clearing skies back up to the north will let you down into the 40s up there across northwest Georgia. Meanwhile, here in the metro area will start it out at 59 degrees. Some communities down south holding on to the 60s, but everybody everywhere is rising tomorrow only to have a big fall into the weekend. I'm tracking the weekend. temperature slide in my complete Fox 5 storm team forecast. All right, John.