Rome To Get “High Water Mark” Sign.
The National Weather Service will unveil a high water mark sign commemorating the historic April 1886 flood in Rome, Georgia, on Wednesday, March 21, at 11 a.m. The sign will be installed on the 3rd Avenue side of the Rome Area History Museum building on Broad Street. This high water mark sign is the first of several to be installed across the southeast U.S., raising public awareness of local flood history. The public is welcome to attend.
Rome’s record flood occurred on April 1, 1886, when the Oostanaula River rose to a stage of 40.3 feet, inundating some parts of downtown Rome with more than 20 feet of water. The flood led the city to abandon and fill in the first floor level of downtown businesses. Present-day Broad Street is about eight feet above its level in 1886.
John Feldt, Hydrologist-in-Charge of the Southeast River Forecast Center in Peachtree City, states, “The High Water Mark sign at Rome is the first such sign nationwide. Other signs are planned for Franklin, Virginia, and Conway, South Carolina, in coming months. These signs not only document major historical floods, but more importantly convey the potential impact that floods have had and could have again on communities. They are a reminder to maintain our vigilance and evaluate our preparedness for floods.”
March 19-23, 2007, is Flood Safety Awareness Week. Floods are one of the most deadly natural disasters, and more people have lost their lives because of flooding than lightning or tornadoes. Many people underestimate the power of flowing water and mistakenly believe their trucks or SUVs can always make it through. Kent Frantz, Senior Service Hydrologist of the Weather Forecast Office in Peachtree City, emphasized, “ Most flood-related deaths and injuries could be avoided if people who come upon areas covered with water followed this simple advise: “Turn Around Don’t Drown.”
The Peachtree City weather office, the Southeast River Forecast Center (SERFC), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as well as Floyd County emergency management officials, cooperated on this project. The SERFC creates forecast guidance of river levels and flows for over 200 points in the southeast U.S. The USGS maintains a realtime hydrologic-monitoring network of stage, streamflow, and rainfall gages that are a crucial component of the NWS’s river forecast and flood warning programs.
