Over 50 rescued in Fannin County catastrophic flood: EMA PIO

Now just into the newsroom, Governor Brian Kemp just declaring a state of emergency for Fannin, Gilmer, Murray, and Union Counties. I'm reading the info from my phone that's just coming in just within the last couple of minutes. So he says, following the flash flooding emergencies that occurred overnight and emergency personnel continue to respond, this flash or this state of emergency will ensure all necessary resources are available to assist these communities impacted by the flooding, end quote. I go back to Fannin County right now, and the EMA's public information officer, Robert Poole, is joining us now live on the phone. We were able to get the technology sorted out. Robert, I appreciate your time this afternoon. So, obviously, we just heard from the governor. He just declared a state of emergency for several counties up there, including Fannin. Can you give us the latest on what you guys are dealing with right now from the EMA's perspective? Right now, really, it's just we're still fielding a lot of phone calls. Been pretty, moving in the right direction since the last time we spoke. The water's receding, the river's still up, but it's inside the banks now. Haven't had any calls, any 911 calls related to this incident since the last time we spoke. So slowly moving in the right direction. I mean, the video that we are seeing right now on our screen, absolutely heartbreaking. It's up to the top of that crosswalk sign right there. And, like, we just see how deep this water got so quickly. I mean, what is your message to people who live up there? Is it still too dangerous to be going around and driving around? Are you guys telling people to stay put? What's your message right now? Just use caution. I try to avoid, you know, MacDade if we can. Yeah, I understand. I was watching some of the DOT cameras earlier, and there's obviously restricting traffic going through there. But you've got a lot of boots on the ground right now working, trying to clean up and start restoring things. So it's obviously hazardous to those people that are down there working with any unnecessary traffic coming and going. So from the EMA's perspective, seeing so many people coming into the area to help you guys out as all of this is unfolding, I mean, obviously we see a number of agencies. I know Tennessee was assisting and we had different local jurisdictions sending help to you guys, the state as well. How helpful is that when you have such catastrophic flooding? I can't even really put words to describe it. We would have been in Bad shape without all the support we got. It was just overwhelming the amount of agencies that came and helped very rapidly, too. I mean, we had 13 swift water teams running last night with nine boats. And so we owe them a great deal, and we're very grateful for their support. And so, obviously, you've been up there for a period of time, and I'm sure how many years you've lived up in the Fannin County area, but have you ever seen something like this before? And I know just a couple of months ago in August, you guys dealt with some flooding as well, which flooded the downtown area. I have not. I've been, so I joined the volunteer department in 2005, and I have never seen anything like this. There's actually some pictures of the flood in 1990 at the firehouse. It's kind of hanging on the wall. I've never seen anything like it, and this surpassed the 1990 flood that we had in August. It did quite a bit of damage, but nothing compared to this. And so I'm not sure if you could speak to this with Governor Brian Kemp declaring a state of emergency for several counties up in northern Georgia. How does that help you guys, or how would that help? It gives us a lot of options with resources and funding. Definitely, in this situation, this is a classic example of when that's necessary. It'll be an extensive cleanup to go on for a very long time. Robert Poole, the Fannin County Emergency Management Agency Public Information Officer. Robert, I appreciate your time this afternoon to talk about what you guys are seeing up in Fannin County. And obviously our heart breaks for you guys as you guys are having to deal with this once again. And as you said, probably one of the worst in quite some time and the worst that you've seen. Yes, definitely. Yeah, Robert Poole, I appreciate your time. I appreciate you joining us and giving us the update, and I hope you stay safe up there and praying for your guys up in Fannin County. All right, thanks for having us.