Hail and heavy rains pound Georgia

<p>A weekend of torrential rain closed nearly 150 south Georgia roads, washed out at six dams, flooded rivers and pelted the state with hail the size of baseballs and golf balls, officials said.</p><p>Parts of central Georgia saw six to eight inches of rain Sunday, as a low-pressure system moved in from the West and combined with moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said.</p><p>Ken Davis, a spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, reported road closings in at least six counties due to flooding or washouts. Candler County had 15 roads closed; Emanuel, 60; Laurens, 30; Peach, 2; Dodge 45; and Troup, 1, he said.</p><p>In addition, two bridges were damaged in Quitman County and four county roads were closed because of bridge washouts in Houston County, he said.</p><p>Fifteen to 20 families had to evacuate in Dooly County because of rising water, he said.</p><p>In northwest Atlanta, the grandchildren of one woman had to be rescued from her house because of Sunday's rising floodwaters. Firefighters used ladders to get the children out of the house.</p><p>The baseball-size hail was reported south of Ellijay on Sunday afternoon, and golf ball-size hail was reported across northwest Georgia, McMullen said.</p><p>Near Newnan, the rain was blamed for a five-car pile-up that shut down Interstate 85 in both directions Sunday. Three people were injured.</p><p>In southwest Georgia, residents of Dougherty County left Sunday church services to find the water had risen over the road. Dougherty County Public Works employee Booker Saylor said it's the worst flooding he's seen since the county's catastrophic floods of 1994 and 1998.</p><p>Residents of Wilcox County reported water as high as the hoods of their cars on some roads. In Sumter County, a small dam broke, but the waters ran downstream into Lake Collins.</p><p>Peach County officials said four private pond dams failed.</p><p>In Lee County, near Albany, a portion of a dam failed Sunday after the county received 4 inches of rain in 24 hours. Firefighters asked nearby residents to voluntarily evacuate, but they could not say how many actually did.</p><p>To prevent the dam from giving way all at once, public works crews dug out a section of the dam to relieve the pressure.</p><p>"We worked well and managed to eliminate a potentially dangerous threat," said William Clark, the county's public works director.</p><p>The inclement weather that battered the state Sunday moved into the Carolinas by midnight, leaving Georgia with chilly temperatures and blustery winds.</p>

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