White County girl killed during storm identified

UNDATED - The Coosawattee River was rising more than 10 feet early Friday, and Jon and Dianne Birts knew it was time to clear out.

Loaded in their Chevy Tahoe with their cat, Sparky, they left their riverside home for higher ground before reaching a dip in the road where the water stretched 35 feet out.

Jon decided to chance it.

Driving forward, the water reached the headlights and seeped inside, jamming the doors shut. The water climbed up to Dianne's neck before Jon forced open the door and the couple swam out.

"I can swim in an Olympic pool five times across, but I could not swim out of there," said Jon, a retired banker.

With only the headlamps of their sinking pickup to guide them, they spotted a propane tank floating by and grabbed ahold until a passing motorist helped them.

Hurricane Ivan dumped as much as 9 inches of rain on parts of Georgia that flooded low-lying areas, including valleys in the Blue Ridge Mountains and some neighborhoods in metro Atlanta.

The storm left hundreds of thousands of people without power in Georgia, displaced hundreds from their homes and killed at least four in the state, including a 6-year-old girl swept away by floodwaters that rushed through her family's front yard.

The girl, Cheyene Terrill, was killed Thursday evening at a trailer park in Cleveland as she was playing in the rain with her three older sisters, her family said.

Her 17-year-old sister grabbed her as the water suddenly came through the family's front yard, but the teen also got caught in the current and had to be rescued by a neighbor. Cheyenne was pulled by the water into a storm drain. Her body was recovered an hour later.

"I used to walk to the bus stop with her to send her to school. It's not going to be the same. It's never going to be the same," said Joey Chastain, another neighbor and close friend of the girl's family.

As many as 35 homes were flooded or destroyed in Ellijay, a town of 2,000 people that sits in a mountain valley intersected by three rivers in north Georgia. A mobile home park along the Cartecay River was hit hard as the water carried away trailers.

"Some of them are tangled in the trees and some of them are floating in the river," said Lorraine Morris, the deputy emergency management director for Gilmer County.

In Atlanta, surging creeks swept cars down roadways and forced the evacuations of homes and apartments. The Peachtree Creek, which runs just north of the city's downtown, crested at a record high _ nearly six feet above its flood stage _ and the Chattahoochee River, which cuts across the metropolitan area, saw its second-worst flooding since the Buford Dam was built to prevent floods in the area.

Jim Noel, a National Weather Service hydrologist, said it was "one of the worst floods in Atlanta in the last 100 years."

The storm was blamed for three other deaths. A woman was killed when a tree fell on her car in Franklin County, which saw as many as five small tornados Thursday. County 911 Director Jones Beasley said the tornados destroyed the county's emergency medical services facility.

A utility worker was killed when he was electrocuted while making repairs caused by the storm in Towns County, and candles ignited a fire that killed a fourth person in Harris County.

The American Red Cross opened 15 shelters around the state, which housed more than 200 people who escaped flooding, high winds and downed trees Thursday night, said Lisa Ray with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. GEMA said Friday night that two remained open, with few occupants, in Ellijay and Clayton, which is in far northeast Georgia.

Gusts of up to 50 mph were recorded in Georgia when the storm came through Thursday, but winds had calmed down to 10 mph to 20 mph by early Friday. Trees throughout the Atlanta area were toppled over by the winds and rain saturation of the ground supporting their roots.

About 68,000 Georgia Power customers remained without electricity Friday night, including 48,000 in metro Atlanta. A spokesman said most customers should have power restored by midnight Saturday. About 27,000 customers of the Georgia Electric Membership Corporation remained without power, including 10,000 in the Atlanta area.

The wind and rain had moved into Tennessee and the Carolinas by Friday, leaving behind flooded creeks and high-running rivers that could pose a hazard for days, authorities said.

There is a possibility that the remains of Ivan could circle around and hit Georgia again by Monday, according to some forecasts. "I don't necessarily follow that trail a whole lot right now. We just don't know," said Von Woods, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

While Ivan spins northward, Tropical Storm Jeanne hovered over the Dominican Republic on Friday, tearing off roofs and triggering mudslides. Jeanne was threatening to regain hurricane strength as it headed toward the Bahamas, on a track for the southeastern United States, where it could hit anywhere from Florida to the Carolinas, including the Georgia coast.

Georgia will be ready if Jeanne targets the state, said Buzz Weiss with the state Emergency Management Agency.

"If it does come our way, we're weary, but we're prepared."

While happy to be alive, Dianne Birts was upset that she had to let go of her cat's cage to swim to safety Friday.

"All of these material things I'm thinking about floating down the river don't mean a hill of beans," she said. "I do miss my kitty, though."