The Saturation of Bibb County

Bibb County School systems announced closings around 5 a.m. on Monday September 21, due to the concerns of flooding in the area.  This followed a weekend of two consecutive torrential down pours. Monday morning began here in Bibb County, Alabama with the Cahaba River at a 21’ stage.  Flood stage is 23’.  This was before even more rain. Bibb County wasn’t alone in this, nor was Alabama.  A large portion of the southeast was experiencing a rain that just would not stop.  Saturday, Sunday, and Monday would bring the worst.  Many called it “monsoon” weather.  Once the rain began on Friday night it didn’t seem to stop until nearly 24 hours later.  In less than ten hours after that it was raining again.  Sunday night more rain came, and Monday morning just added insult to injury.  Bibb County, has long had many flash flood areas, but this was the first time in a while that it lived up to those expectations.  Portions of Holly Hill Road in Brent were consumed by rapidly running creeks of water.  Ditches were over filling yards looked like lake front property, others looked like floating on-lake property.  This was only the beginning.  Cahaba Christian Academy’s front yard looked like a river, portions of Pondville and Six Mile took on the various looks from, rivers and creeks to rice fields and swamps.  What was little known by many of the local public, Brent PD along with members of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Department had already made nearly 25 rescues over the weekend, 6 of which had to be retrieved with flat bottom boats.  Portions of Highway 219 had become compromised with water early on Monday and Millpond Road was a mess.  Meanwhile in Six Mile, Old Six Mile Road had an entire section washed away and a red pick up was trapped in a steady rush of powerful floodwaters below.  Unconfirmed reports were abound throughout the day, but perhaps nothing was more chilling than the thought, which cradled in the back of everyone’s mind.  This wasn’t it.  The grounds were slowly saturated for nearly a month with sporadic, and then finally the bottom fell out.  We all know you can’t add water to a full glass.  When you do all that remains is a mess.  More rain is in the forecast over the next few days, as of our press time.  A more detailed report will be in the Centreville Press next week.