Rains cause flooding, road closures throughout state

Georgia is feeling the devastating effects of heavy rains that have pounded the state of late. The rains prompted road closures and pushed rivers above flood stage.

Students at GCSU were notified of flood warnings via their myCats accounts. Justin Gaines, the Coordinator of Emergency Preparedness and Occupational Safety, updated students with information on the warnings and what they can do to stay safe. The main concern was for the safety of students and staff while commuting, he said.

“Driving is the biggest issue . be careful. It only takes two feet of water to push a car off the road,” Gaines said.

Flooding is the number one weather-related killer in the United States.

“We encourage, in any flood situation in which rivers have overflowed their banks, to not drive through standing water,” Gaines said. “Your car could be your coffin.”

Baldwin County was not on the list of counties under flood warnings given by the National Weather Service earlier this week, but it was close enough to other counties to encourage precautions.

The Oconee River was the only major concern, according to Gaines. But he said earlier this week that water levels had decreased and were starting to go back down. The Oconee River carries no threat to the actual college itself and GCSU has no assets on the river.

The rains also affected GCSU intramural activities. Bert Rosenberger, the coordinator of ecreational sports, said the rain was anticipated and games were rescheduled accordingly.

“Our fields are taking a good beating. We are paying staff members extra hours to clean fields and make them playable again,” Rosenberger said. “Do not wear your best pair of shoes out there, that’s for sure,” Rosenberger said, commenting on how muddy the fields were.

Games that were scheduled to be played Monday night were either canceled or had their halftimes eliminated.

Matt Hilliard, a freshman chemistry major, said that he was worried about how the rain would affect his team.

Hilliard, the quarterback for a flag football team named Gecko Bulls, wondered whether they were going to cancel their most recent regular season game.

“We were excited to play, and if the game was postponed then our games would have been delayed. And there is no guarantee that the reschedule would fit everyone’s schedule,” Hilliard said.

Intramurals and commuting back home to the Atlanta area seemed to be the most prominent frustrations with the flooding, but the cancellation of classes also had students wondering.

Although there are chances of rain through at least Monday, GCSU’s main campus is not located in a flood plain. As of Wednesday, classes were scheduled to continue as usual, although students are encouraged to check their myCats accounts for further updates in the event that anything changes.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 25 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry