Week of rain leaves county drenched but free from long-term flood damage
Sep. 22—After raining long enough to give some people visions of animals pairing off two by two, nearly a week's worth of the wet stuff is finally giving way to clearer North Alabama skies. And while other areas to the north endured plenty of flooding damage, it all left Cullman County mostly unscathed — no ark required.
Days of persistent precipitation dumped between 2" and 3" of rain on the county — perhaps more in a few smaller areas that saw repeat deluges. But Cullman Emergency Management Agency director Phyllis Little said Tuesday that the sporadic and isolated nature of the south-to-north weather pattern provided just enough in-between breathers to prevent large-scale flooding, toppled trees, power outages, and washed-out county roads.
"The rain would come and then it would stop, which gave most of the rainfall enough time to drain off," she said. "The ground was already saturated to start with, but the rain would let up a little bit in between the next patch — which probably kept us from experiencing worse conditions overall. It just hasn't been everywhere all at once countywide."
Beyond momentary surges, county roads largely escaped permanent damage, with few closures disrupting rural drives. County road engineer Bryan Cheatwood said that a small section of one road — County Road 1339 near Lake George — remained closed as of late Tuesday after the lake topped its spill level, though the road department plans "to make improvements at locations like that one, to eliminate situations like it in the future.
"We're looking to make those improvements at several locations, in fact," he added, "but we just haven't had time to do it all in advance of this rainfall."
As for the the near future, sunnier days and more seasonal weather are ahead. "We are pretty much done with the rain," said Little. "We've got cooler temperatures coming this weekend. It's going to be more fall-like. thankfully, it's actually supposed to be a nice weekend."
