September 2009 Flooding Chattahoochee River near Whitesburg (02338000)

A major element of the USGS mission is the documentation of the extent and magnitude of extreme hydrologic events, like floods and droughts. The South Atlantic Water Science Center is a leader in monitoring extreme water conditions, from droughts and falling groundwater levels to floods and storm-tide surges to water-quality problems.

Many days of continuous heavy rain in mid-September 2009 resulted in flooding in many parts of Georgia, especially in north Georgia and the Atlanta region. The rains produced streamflows of record proportions. rivers and streams had magnitudes so great that the odds of it happening were less than 0.2 percent in any given year. In other words, there was less than a 1 in 500 chance that parts of...