‘Everybody there lost everything’: Ogeechee River communities in Georgia reeling from Debby flooding

Caption

A compact track loader clears a temporary road in southwest Savannah's Bradley Point neighborhood on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024.

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

Parts of Chatham and Bryan Counties in Southeast Georgia are continuing to deal with flooding from Tropical Storm Debby, a week after the cyclone dumped 10 inches of rain on the area.

Some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods are along or near the Ogeechee River, which crested Sunday at just over 10 feet near Richmond Hill, breaking the previous record of 7 feet and prompting partial closures of State Route 25 (also known as U.S. Route 17, or Coastal Highway) and State Route 204.

“Everybody there lost everything,” said Morgan's Bridge resident Christy Mingledorff, who had to evacuate her house Thursday with her 8-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. “All we wanted was sandbags so we could save our stuff. We couldn't even get it.”

The three are staying at a hotel paid for by the Red Cross until Friday, but after then, Mingledorff said that she doesn't know what her family will do.

“People out here aren't financially stable to where they can just find somewhere else to live and replace everything they have,” she said. “We don't have the finances to go anywhere. We're just really lost and broken right now.”

Her children are “heartbroken,” Mingledorff said, after the family was forced to surrender two of their four dogs — who they had kept for 13 and 16 years, respectively, since they were puppies — as the hotel that they are staying at would accommodate only up to two pets.

As with Morgan's Bridge, it is often not until days after a storm passes that flooding reaches its highest levels in riverside communities, as rainfall takes time to saturate the ground before flowing elsewhere.

This was also the case at Bradley Point in far southwestern Savannah, where the city built a temporary road made of dirt and gravel for residents to bypass flooded streets.

Savannah Alderman Kurtis Purtee, who represents the neighborhood on City Council as part of his district, assisted in distributing aid to Bradley Point residents, and said that Debby was “by far the most unusual storm” he has seen in his 20 years in Savannah.

“I'll use the word 'historic,' because it is,” he said. “The folks that live out there — this is the first time they're seeing this. It's something that is very new to us to be able to navigate through.”

Purtee raised concerns of not only structural and vehicle damage, but also health and safety concerns from contaminated water and possible run-ins with snakes and alligators.

Another tropical system named Ernesto is coursing through the Caribbean currently as a tropical storm near Puerto Rico. It is forecast to remain far away from the East Coast as it curves north toward Bermuda.