At least four dams in Georgia were breached, releasing water as Tropical Storm Debby soaked the state this week. But only one of the dams posed any danger to people and property, according to information released on Thursday by the Department of Natural Resources.
Water began flowing over the top of the Oglesby Pond Dam in Bulloch County, about 70 miles northwest of Savannah, on Wednesday. The area around it is mostly rural and sparsely populated, but the overflow inundated creeks that flooded neighborhoods miles away, said Capt. Todd Hutchens, a spokesman for the county sheriff’s office.
The flooding caused property and vehicle damage in some of those downstream communities, but no one was injured, Captain Hutchens said.
The other three dams that breached were on ponds on small, private farms, said Sara Lips, a spokeswoman for the natural resources department. They were exempt from state regulation because they were not expected to cause fatalities or damage.
All four were in the southeast corner of the state, where emergency officials had previously said that dam failures were a concern as Debby dropped more than a foot of rain in some areas. Local officials reported that some residents were evacuated in the vicinity of several dams this week as floodwaters rose and roadways failed.
Officials were surveying Bulloch county by air on Thursday to determine the damage, Captain Hutchens said. But he estimated that about a third of the county’s population of 83,000 people had been affected by water damage to their property.
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