Dozens Are Rescued in Georgia and Tennessee After Heavy Rain

Heavy rains led to severe flooding along a stretch of the Georgia-Tennessee border on Thursday, prompting evacuations and dozens of rescues of stranded people from submerged residences and buildings, the authorities said. Emergency workers in boats rescued more than 55 people in Fannin County in northern Georgia, the Fannin County Emergency Management Agency said . “Although floodwaters are beginning to recede, we ask everyone to continue using caution,” the agency said, noting that roads may still be flooded, damaged or unsafe for driving.

“Please avoid unnecessary travel and never attempt to drive through flooded roadways.” Kristin Coulter, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Authority, said that 58 people were rescued by her state’s swift water rescue teams near the Georgia border and that no injuries or fatalities had been reported. Chief Michael Earley of the McCaysville Police Department in Fannin County told Fox5 Atlanta that floodwaters in the citys’ downtown area had reached as high as seven feet overnight.

He said one of his department’s police vehicles had been seen floating down the Toccoa River. The section of the Toccoa River that runs through McCaysville begins in Georgia at the base of Blue Ridge Lake and becomes the Ocoee River as it crosses into Tennessee. At Copperhill, Tenn., which sits across the river and the state line from McCaysville, a U.S. Geological Survey gauge recorded a water level of more than 18 feet on Thursday morning.

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