Americus makes most of disaster
By
Mara Shalhoup
The Macon Telegraph
AMERICUS - In the city where nearly half of the state's deaths from the Great Flood of '94 occurred, recovery is less about repairs than about preparing for future disasters.
"It allowed us to get a better understanding of the things we needed to do to improve communication and cooperation," said Mike Mock, director of the local Emergency Management Agency.
The flood turned Americus into an island, severing all roads leading into the city. Flooding came not from the Flint River, which flows almost 15 miles east of town, but from a series of crumbling lake dams. The cascading water gained ferocity with each dam it trampled, until a great wall of it crashed into the city.
Although damage to local infrastructure was estimated at only $500,000 - a fraction of other midstate cities' losses - the flood's toll of 15 lives could not be compensated by grants - it is reckoned instead by remembrance and precaution.
"The flood gave us a new respect of keeping our eyes on dams," Mock said, "and a new respect of the weather."
Since the flood, the National Weather Service has set up a special transmitter in Americus to make 24-hour weather reports available to the city. The equipment, which will be operational this month, will transmit emergency information to inexpensive, battery-operated radios, helping spread awareness of weather problems even if power and cable are knocked out by storms.
No such notice was available during the early morning of July 6, 1994, the day that 14 of the town's 15 flood victims died.
"It was absolutely without warning," Mock said. "People woke up and didn't know it had happened."
Just before midnight, a few hours before the first local dam broke, Americus Fire Chief Steve Moreno heard about the flood warnings in Macon. He went to the fire department and called in volunteers, more than tripling his 11-member night staff.
"All my guys thought I was insane," Moreno said. "But none of us had any idea of the magnitude of what we were in for."
By dawn, phone lines were clogged by an average 20 simultaneous calls. The tripled staff members were so busy trying to rescue stranded and injured citizens they didn't have a moment to assess the destruction - including a citywide loss of water and electricity.
Moreno said the city now has an emergency management plan, devised in the wake of the flood. The plan includes ways to supply power generators and emergency fuel supplies to help keep rescue efforts going issues city workers wouldn't have seen the need to address before the flood.
"It was a good experience for us," Moreno said. "It stretched us to the limit and brought a sense of maturity."
A plaque erected in 1994 outside the police and fire departments recognizes "the immense acts of bravery, courage and selflessness undertaken by so many during this most trying time."
After looking at the names of the 10 men and five women who were killed in the floodwaters, Moreno raised his eyes skyward.
"There must be some guardian angel up there," he said. "That list could have been twice that long, easily."