Rabun Co Dam Releases Prompt Flood Advisory for Stephens County, Northeast Georgia and Upstate

Late this morning, the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg issued a flood advisory for Stephens County and all of Northeast Georgia and the Upstate.

Meteorologist Trisha Palmer says the advisory is the result of water releases from the reservoir lakes in Rabun County and are a precautionary measure.

“There’s a lot of releases upstream on Tallulah and the Tugaloo and as those converge and go into the Savannah River, the water is getting quite a bit higher,” She said. “So, we have gone ahead and issued a flood advisory that’s for nusiance flooding for the Tugaloo Corridor and the low lying areas in the upper reaches of Lake Hartwell in Stephens County, but it does extend down to Oconee County, SC, Hart and Franklin Counties of Lake Hartwell.”

Stephens County EMA Director Danielle Rhodes has been in touch with Georgia Power officials this morning.

Rhodes says Stephens County will likely not see much impact from the releases at Lake Rabun and Tallulah Falls.

“I did speak with someone at Georgia Power and they don’t expect it to become a problem for Stephens County. They expect the water to recede a little bit for the gates today. I think for us right now, we’re OK. If we receive an enormous amount of rain that might change, but from what I understand we might receive an inch (of rain) today, but that’s not set in stone either. It depends on how the weather sets up,” Rhodes said.

This morning, Meteorologist Chris Horn with the National Weather Service told WNEG News Stephens County has broken a record for May rainfall.

WNEG Radio is an official rain spotter for the National Weather Service, and our rain gauge this month has recorded a record 13.6 inches of rainfall.

Horn said Stephens County’s previous record high for the month of May was just over seven inches.

The normal amount of rain for May is 3.75 inches.

Palmer says we can expect more rain today through tomorrow but is should begin to gradually taper off Friday.