To call it the storm of the year, or even the storm of the decade, would not come close to describing the impact of what hit Carroll County on the night of Sunday, Sept. 20, and continued into the next morning. It was, according to almost all meteorologists and historians, the storm of the century.

Not in 150 years had Carroll County received so much rain in such a short period of time – An estimated 8 to 10 inches fell in parts of north Carroll County over a 24-hour period. Six inches were measured in Carrollton over a 5-hour period from 1 to 6 a.m. Monday. Some western portions of neighboring Douglas County received up to 21 inches of rain.

Ten people died statewide as a result of the flooding, seven of them in Douglas County, with two of those seven being residents of Carroll County.

Normally placid creeks and streams became like roaring seas with white-capped waves that destroyed everything in their path. An estimated $250 million in damage was done in the state, most of it uninsured losses, with Carroll and Douglas counties catching some of the heaviest blows that the storm had to offer.

Within a few days, the area was declared a federal disaster area by President Barack Obama, and a FEMA disaster recovery station was set up in Carrollton to help local residents rebuild. The Small Business Administration also offered low-interest loans, which surprisingly few Carroll County residents applied for.

But the buildings could be rebuilt, and most of the possessions replaced. The three lives that were lost are gone forever.

Delena Weathers, a young Carrollton mother who sold real estate and enjoyed photography and time with her children, died when her car was swept away by the floods as she drove home that fateful night from a Mary Kay conference in Tennessee. She encountered a rushing creek in Douglas County and placed a desperate cell phone call to her father before she was overtaken by the rising waters.

Debra Hooper, 44, of Whitesburg also lost her life after encountering a flooded stream while driving home from a friend’s house in Villa Rica. Her body was found a week after the storm, on Sept. 28, along the banks of the Dog River.

It was the loss of the youngest life, that of 2-year-old Preston Slade Crawford, that touched so many hearts in Carroll County and beyond.

When emergency personnel arrived at the Crawford residence on Horsley Mill Road, adjacent to the nearby Snake Creek, the strong current had already swept the Crawford family’s trailer into a tree, ripping it in half. As the pieces of the trailer moved downstream, its occupants – a man, woman and two children – managed to escape into the water. The woman, clinging to her 1-year-old child, grabbed hold of a tree as her husband was washed nearly 150 feet away. He was then able to hold onto another tree, but 2-year-old Preston was already gone.

During the worst of the storm, Snake Creek reached unprecedented heights. Its previous record was 14 feet, 8 inches, and Carroll County Sheriff Terry Langley reported that during the night it measured well above 17 feet.

“It would take a tremendous force to pull a mobile home from its foundation,” Langley said. “It was almost like a water tornado. When you have that kind of rain the water probably went up about 10 to 15 feet in a matter of minutes.”

Emergency personnel located the three stranded family members but were unable to attempt a rescue due to the dangerous conditions of the floodwaters, which at one point had whitecaps measuring 1 to 2 feet high.

When news of the loss of Preston Slade hit the media, outpourings of financial contributions for his family came forth. One donor offered to pay for the funeral, while others offered food and shelter. A group of local residents ended up building the family a whole new house on Horsley Mill Road.

It took several days for the waters to recede. And when they did, the damage was horrendous. Mold and mildew required complete renovations to hundreds of houses and the county is still working to repair all of the roads that had been washed out and the bridges that had been damaged.

At least 16 homes in the Valley Circle subdivision in Carrollton have been deemed beyond repair and FEMA is negotiating a federal buyout program with the city that would lead to the homes being demolished and the area returned to its natural state as wetlands.

McIntosh Reserve, the 1,200-plus acre county park in Whitesburg, sustained major damage and was closed indefinitely. It remains closed today. Some of the areas along the Chattahoochee River in the reserve have been “changed forever,” according to park manager Daryl Johnson.

There were also stories of heroism, some of which made it to the local newspaper but surely countless others that didn’t.

In one such story, a local county commissioner went out in the night to join with firefighters and EMTs on a search and rescue mission along the raging Snake Creek.

Despite all of the carnage, Carroll County learned something about itself. It learned that most things that are not living can be replaced and that life will, eventually, return to normal with the helping hands of neighbors and friends.