Floodwater Swamps Another Town

Brown waters swamped upscale riverside homes Sunday as this southwest Georgia city got slapped by the first wave of flooding that has swept much of the state.

The death toll statewide rose to 28 since Tuesday, the day after Tropical Storm Alberto brought heavy downpours.

The latest bodies, discovered Sunday, were of a man who drowned when his tractor-trailer washed off a road and a 3-year-old whose mother’s car was swept into a creek. The mother’s body was found Saturday. The bodies were found in Americus, about 95 miles north of Bainbridge.

The Flint River was more than seven feet above flood stage at Bainbridge and was expected to crest Wednesday at 45 feet, which is 20 feet above flood stage. That is nearly five feet higher than the record set in a 1925 flood.

More than 2,000 people in West Bainbridge were told to evacuate by Saturday evening, and most others in the city of 10,000 were gone or packing up Sunday.

“My granddaddy used to tell me about the flood of ‘25, when you could go anywhere by boat. Well, this looks like it could be worse than that,” said Mack Brock, a home builder who had a pole tracking the flood’s rise up the back deck of his home.

The Flint remained at 42 feet, 22 feet above flood stage, on Sunday in Albany, about 50 miles north of Bainbridge. A crest of 45 to 46 feet was expected Sunday night.

President Clinton on Sunday declared four Florida counties major disaster areas. The designation means the counties are eligible for federal assistance. Clinton made similar designations last week for several Georgia and Alabama counties.