Slow-moving storm system dumps nearly a foot of water on Atmore area
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Although most of the 10-12 inches of rain that fell on the area Sunday night (April 6) and into Monday had drained by Tuesday, Atmore remained for the most part a soggy city.
Atmore Fire Chief Ron Peebles said he can’t remember the last time the city got such a soaking.
“It flooded everywhere, pretty much from Flomaton to Bay Minette, and especially here,” Peebles said. “There were stalled vehicles all over town, and a (Medstar) ambulance stalled out on Craig Street on its way back to their building from Atmore Community Hospital (just a few blocks away). I’m curious to see how many inches we had.”
While several residents reported that their rain gauges overflowed at the 6-inch or 8-inch mark, the latest National Weather Service estimates are that 6-10 inches fell on the city and its surrounding area.
Police Chief Chuck Brooks agrees with those estimates, and with the fire chief.
“It was a very active night; we responded to a lot of different situations,” Brooks said of the deluge. “We had flood conditions everywhere. I would guess we had around 10 inches of rain, if not more. We had a bunch of cars stalled out in the water that covered the streets, maybe 10 to 15 vehicles, not because the water was too high, but because of the speed at which people drove through the water.”
The rain, produced by a slow-moving storm system that lingered for hours and saturated most of Lower Alabama, flooded city streets, county roads and state highways across the Atmore area but caused no injuries and little or no significant property damage.
The yards of several businesses and residences across Atmore were still covered by water and rain-washed debris early Tuesday, and reports are that rainwater breached the banks of most area rivers, creeks and ponds and spread into surrounding woodlands.
Lester Brown, whose home sits on high ground at the intersection of East Horner Street and 7th Avenue, had water up to his front steps. The situation would probably have been worse, he said, had he not taken it upon himself to clean out the storm drains in the immediate area of his home.
“We had water in the edge of our carport and up to our steps,” Brown said. “I cleaned out the drains, or it would have been in the house. I have to clean those drains every time we get a hard rain, or all the yards around here would be covered with water.”
The residual rain still filled most roadside ditches early Tuesday, but had mysteriously drained away faster than it usually does when heavy rains fall on the city. Yellow cautionary tape hung limply from stop signs and other attachments at several intersections, reminders that the areas were at one time impassable.
Although no injuries or major damage occurred during the deluge, lightning struck the air conditioner of a home in the Robinsonville community, creating an apprehensive situation for the homeowner and for city firefighters, who were called to assist Little Rock Volunteer Fire Department.
“Lightning hit the air conditioning unit at a house near the end of Green Acres Road,” the fire chief explained. “The road was washed out, and we couldn’t get a firetruck to the house, so we had to walk in.”
Luckily, the lightning strike only blew out a receptacle, and the breakers prevented a fire from forming.
“There was the smell you usually get when there’s an electrical short,” Peebles said. “That’s pretty much what it boils down to. We cut all the breakers off and told the homeowners to leave them off until an electrician looked at them. It could have been a bad situation if there had been an actual fire.”
Calvin Grace, director of the city’s Streets & Sanitation Department, said he was surprised that the flood water receded so quickly.
“We had so much rainfall that it sort of surprised me that it drained so good,” said Grace, whose crews have been able to spend more time on keeping ditches clean since solid waste collection was privatized. “It wasn’t really anything we did, except we cleaned most of the drains all over town and we’ve been keeping most of the big ditches clean.”