A storm that dumped up to 12 inches of rain in Louisiana and Mississippi Thursday moved into Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and western North Carolina today.
The National Weather Service posted flash flood watches and warnings for much of the South, including parts of Georgia, where flood warnings were issued for Gainesville and a number of other north Georgia cities and towns. (See Weather Alerts at the top of this page.) A little over three inches of rain had fallen at Lee Gilmer Memorial Aiport in Gainesville as of 9:30 this morning but there were unofficial reports of as much as four inches in some places in the Gainesville area.
Just after 10:00 this morning, the NWS issued a flash flood warning "until further notice" for the Chattahoochee River near Cornelia, affecting Hall and Habersham counties.
"All persons with interests along the river should monitor the latest forecasts...and be prepared to take necessary precautions to protect life and property," according to the alert.
The Weather Service says as of 9:00 this morning, the river was at 13.6 feet and rising. Flood stage is 14 feet.
The storm system moving through Georgia and producing all this rain was blamed for a death in Louisiana when a tree fell on a camper. Forecasters planned to check today on a possible tornado near Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Forecasters said up to 5 inches of rain was possible in northern Alabama and central and north Georgia. A flood warning was also issued for Asheville, North Carolina.
Water flooded more than a dozen homes in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, and more than two dozen water rescues were reported in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, because of the rain.
(AccessWDUN's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/12/747963/flood-warnings-as-heavy-rains-move-across-the-south