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Nevils Denmark Road in Bulloch County near Georgia State Route 46 as seen on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024.
Credit: Bulloch County Sheriff's Office
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‘We didn't know that it could flood out here’: Georgians recover from Debby, brace for more flooding
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LISTEN: Rural areas including Bulloch County saw major flood damage from Tropical Storm Debby, to some residents' surprise. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.
Communities in Southeast Georgia are picking up the pieces from Tropical Storm Debby, while also preparing for yet more possible flooding this weekend from cresting rivers, ponds and other bodies of water even as the rain has largely stopped.
Statesboro's Bulloch County was among the hardest-hit areas in the state, owing in part to its roughly 700 miles of dirt roads — more than any of Georgia's 158 other counties.
Even neighborhoods with paved streets experienced major flooding, including Mill Creek Landing east of Statesboro, where new homeowners Arsenio and Allie Wright had to evacuate early Wednesday morning.
“We didn't know that it could flood out here,” Arsenio Wright said outside his house Thursday afternoon as a repairman went inside to assess flood damage. “We was woke up like 5:30 in the morning to about four feet of water. We had to get on a boat, and getting on a boat was a shocking experience.”
“Having to get on a boat to be relocated somewhere else from our home that we just bought like two months ago — for me, I'm almost six months pregnant, so that's a lot,” Allie Wright said.
The married couple said that they will need to replace carpets, walls, electrical wiring, furniture and clothes that were ruined by floodwater.
Bulloch County's only emergency shelter for Tropical Storm Debby was hosted at Pittman Park United Methodist Church, where about 50 evacuees stayed.
“This storm was completely different than any other storm I've ever seen,” said pastor Jonathan Smith. “Usually we worry about high winds. We worry about tornadic activity. We didn't really see any of that. It just rained and rained and rained and rained, to the point where our ponds and roads were washed out [and] dams started busting.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp held a Friday afternoon news conference at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport with state officials, saying that “the storm itself is behind us, but the road to recovery is certainly not. Everyone here and many others throughout the state will be with the communities like this one in support until that recovery is complete.”
He said that it may take the Port of Savannah a week or two to get back to normal volume, as 10 ships are currently being held up. The port was closed Tuesday.
About 138,000 Georgia Power customers had lost power at some point this week, Kemp said, but service has been restored to all but about 1,000.
A flood warning remains in effect for areas affected by the Oconee River near Eden, Ga.
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