(The Herald Gazette won multiple writing and photography awards for its coverage of the Great Flood of 1994. This is the lead story from the July 12, 1994 edition.)
By Walter Geiger
A frustrated would-be Hurricane Alberto, who grew only to tropical storm strength, cried himself to sleep over Barnesville-Lamar County and the surrounding area early last week dumping up to 25 inches of rain in a 48-hour period and causing extensive flash flood damage.
For the first time in its history, Lamar County was declared a Federal Disaster Area with initial damage estimates pegged at $3.2 million.
Miraculously, no deaths or serious injuries were reported locally but neighboring counties and those downstream on both the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers were not so fortunate.
The most serious problem here was the demise of the dam at the Barnesville city reservoir along Edie Creek. The 32-year-old earthen dam fell victim to onrushing floodwaters when its spillway proved woefully inadequate to handle the volume of water.
“The worst has happened. The dam is gone,” Barnesville city manager Kenny Roberts told an emergency meeting of the Barnesville city council Tuesday evening.
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