ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Dozens of streets were impassable, and motorists who tried to drive down them got stranded. Fast-rising water threatened homes, too.
Nearly six inches of rain in Albany led to dramatic rescues like this one on Flint Avenues. Two women were stranded when their car stalled as they attempted to drive through standing water. A similar scene on West Highland. Neighbors and a dog helped rescue a woman and her child from the water.
"We had a lot of residents who went around the barricades and got their cars stuck," said Phil Roberson, Albany Public Works Director.
Heavy rains caused the city's storm drainage system to back up in neighborhoods like Lake Park.
"No city system is set to handle this amount of water," said Roberson.
Albany's system can only keep up with about an inch an hour, sending water back out of man holes and into the street like it did here in the 500 block of Meadowlark. In the 2000 block of Robinhood front yards were swallowed up when storm water drains couldn't keep up. The water was half way up the tires of cars along Kingswood Drive. Across town, holding ponds on Pine Bluff Road quickly began spilling their banks, but public works is thankful the storms didn't knock out the power.
"Even though we were overwhelmed with water we were still able to keep the pumps going and pump the ponds out," said Roberson. "People called us and said water was coming in their house."
Bags were placed at the door of this West Lincoln Avenue home. You can see at one point the water made it about half way up the bags.
Now that the storms are over, the city's drainage system has to catch up so that water along North Cleveland and other streets will recede.
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