I had the same experience during the epic 2009 flood here in Cobb and Douglas counties. 30 inches or so of rain fell in 24 hours raising the Chattahoochie watershed some 30 feet above flood stage. Six folks drowned in their cars trying to cross bridges with knee deep water.
Near my house..one day after the main creeks flooded..a small ditch creek suddenly arose from nothing turning into a 100 foot wide...10 knot or so river...which cut across a road...cutting off 100 people or so.
One of the people and his son got out their jon boat...sending his other son...who was all of 8 years old...to alert their neighbors. By the time the dad had the first boat load ready to cross...Cobb police, FF, and EMT’s showed up on my side of the current.
The jon boat’s trolling motor was not close to being enough to cross the current...I knew this...and soon as the bow hit the stronger middle current...it turned and headed straight for the edge of the road...where a small stand of weak tree shrubs was all that stood between them and the certain death 100 yards downstream promised by the very loud sound of noses creek in monster form.
I turned to look behind me to see if any of the public safety workers were gonna move...then quickly headed toward the boat in jorts and leather hiking sandals...ignoring the threats of arrest and how dumbass I was being. Luckily...the deepest water in the middle was only waist high...the jon boat dad and I evacuated everyone off the cut off island...him on back with the motor..me pulling the boat’s bow rope.
My legs were ravaged by the balls of fire ants the flood washed out the ground. Didn’t know till the next day when I saw the news where vid footage of a angry swirl of fire ant ball was shown.
What we did was no big deal...but there were countless lives saved by citizens and public safety...in extremely dangerous situations during that flood. It made me proud to call these folks my neighbors.
Thank you.