Southwest Georgia Engulfed as Waters Continue to Rise : Disaster: Officials in one town work to secure a plant where potentially toxic ammonia is stored. State is in the midst of its worst natural catastrophe.

The death toll from what is being called the most devastating natural disaster in Georgia’s history climbed to 30 Monday as floodwaters continued to rise, engulfing town after hapless town in the southwest portion of the state and threatening a huge fertilizer plant.

In Bainbridge, where nearly a third of the town’s 14,000 residents have been evacuated, the Georgia National Guard labored in 90-degree heat to build a 20-foot bulwark around a fertilizer plant containing 9 million pounds of ammonia. The chemical reacts violently to water and its fumes can be poisonous if inhaled. Company officials said they thought the plant was secure. Nevertheless, the town was on alert.

“We’ve got our things ready,” said Annie Cohen, a seamstress who came downtown Monday evening to watch the floodwaters rise. She does not live in the flood area but nevertheless was ready to evacuate at the first hint of trouble at the plant. “We’ll only be taking a few clothes to put on.”

The plant is on the banks of the swelling Flint River, which is expected to crest in Bainbridge on Thursday. But already the water has risen higher than anyone here can remember. Cheney Griffin Park, which fronts the river, is under water. Only the rooftops of the picnic pavilions are visible. North of Bainbridge on Route 91, the entire town of Newton is under water, its 500 residents homeless.

“I’ve been coming down here every day and it’s getting worse and worse every time,” said Bobby Inlow, an insurance company office manager who stood watching the river Monday behind the yellow tape barrier the National Guard had erected to keep the curious away. “We’ve still got eight or 10 more feet to go” before the river crests, he said, shaking his head.

Bainbridge zoning administrator Charles Seymour said residents have been calling him to ask how high the water will get, and if their house is safe. “I wish I could tell them,” he said. “But we’ve never been through anything like this before.”

City Hall, at 135 feet above sea level, and most of downtown may stay dry, he said. But an area called the Big Slough, northeast of town, has already started to become inundated, he added, and there is no history to suggest what might happen next.

About 150 National Guard troops from the 550th Engineer Battalion built dams made of sandbags and red Georgia clay to protect the fertilizer plant.

While a National Guard military policeman in a Humvee vehicle guarded one gate to the plant, a plant worker stood guard at a second gate. He scoffed at reports of danger. “There’s no way in the world this (ammonia) could blow or seep,” he said. “If we had four times as much water it ain’t going to move that tank.”

Assistant Fire Chief Doyle Welch said the chemical was a concern, but company officials believed the precautions were enough to prevent a catastrophe at the 200-foot-tall stainless steel ammonia tank. When the river crests, water at the plant is expected to be five feet deep, he said.

“We can’t be 100% certain because nobody has ever encountered this before,” said David Prichard, a spokesman for Vigoro Industries, which owns the plant.

Forty-five Georgia counties have been placed in a state of emergency. Thirty-one counties have been declared federal disaster areas. “Over the past six days Georgia witnessed a natural disaster like no one has ever seen before in our history,” Gov. Zell Miller said in a news conference at the Capitol in Atlanta.

As many as 10,000 state employees are involved in the rescue effort, which Miller said is the largest ever undertaken in the state. “It is unprecedented in its scope,” he said.

Almost 3,000 National Guard troops are being employed throughout southwest Georgia in search and rescue missions as well as water distribution and security patrols.

The flood also soaked 300,000 acres of farmland, dealing blows to the state’s famed peanut and peach crops. Crop damage could reach $100 million, officials said.

About 175,000 people were without drinking water in the devastated section of the state.

In Bainbridge, state troopers patrolled neighborhoods and military police set up barricades near the river, hoping to prevent more deaths from the flooding spawned by tropical storm Alberto a week ago.

Disaster aid centers opened Monday in Albany, Americus, Jonesboro and Macon to help flood victims apply for government grants and loans.

The death count reached 30 Sunday night when two bodies were discovered in Americus, 129 miles south of Atlanta; a man whose tractor-trailer was washed off a road and a 3-year-old boy who was in a car with his mother that was swept into a creek. The mother’s body was found Saturday.

Fifteen of the 30 deaths in Georgia occurred in or just outside of Americus.

In the Albany area, 50 miles northwest of Bainbridge, the Flint River finally began to recede early Monday.

In the Florida Panhandle, several towns were either half-submerged, or expecting to be. “Water? We got plenty of water,” said Blountstown police dispatcher Pat Padgett.

The Apalachicola River in Blountstown crested Sunday afternoon after forcing the evacuation of about 120 homes. Three emergency shelters, set up in the local high school and in two churches, housed 140 people overnight Sunday.

Some rivers in the Florida Panhandle, being fed by the overflow from Georgia, were still rising. The Chipola River, which meets the Apalachicola south of Blountstown, was not expected to crest until Tuesday. The tiny towns of Altha and Chipola were threatened.

Stanley reported from Bainbridge and Harrison from Atlanta. Times special correspondent Mike Clary contributed to this story from Miami.

How to Send Relief to Flood Victims

Readers wishing to help victims of the Southern floods may do so by calling the Red Cross at 1-800-842-2200 or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) to charge a financial contribution to a credit card, or by sending a check made payable to American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013

Misery Spreads

A devastating flood surged toward Georgia’s southwest corner, threatening a fertilizer plant. Farther upriver, waters began to drop.

Area where state of emergency has been declared

Bainbridge: Dike built to shield fertilizer plant with 9 million pounds of ammonia.

Albany: Flint River begins to recede

Florida Panhandle: torrents surge south

Path of floodwater

Sources: AP, The Atlanta Constitution, Times Atlanta Bureau