Lake Allatoona Still Rising - Trails are Underwater!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 10:14AM Now that the rivers are cresting, Allatoona is filling up. Last night Allatoona rose 8.33 ft to 850.48 feet. That is 10.5 feet over summer full pool. Even worse is the Etowah River hasn't seen it's full crest and will continue to dump water into Allatoona for days filling it up more.
The last major Allatoona flooding event was after Hurricane Ivan in 2004 when Allatoona crested at 849.20. This has beat that record.
With that being said, we have sections of all major trails underwater. Dwelling, VMT, South Loop and Mos Bite are all affected.
With Rome being flooded as well, my prediction is that the lake will sit at this level for a week before the COE will start draining it.
The trails will be closed until the lake recedes. Meanwhile, we are organizing upcoming work parties to clean up. Stay tuned for details.
Current state of the Steel Bridge - This is not from storm runoff - this is how high the lake is now!
Jay Wilkes
UPDATE: The Corp of Engineers have released their latest projections. They are now estimating the lake to be at 857 ft! Where it 857 feet? I'll give you an idea. The "clearing" at the Dwelling intersection will be underwater by 3-4 feet. Water will be to the ladder bridge at the VMT entrance above the big rock. We may see water backed up all the way to the parking lot.
Hold on tight folks. We expect the trail to be closed for probably a month.
Here is a picture of the Steel Bridge at 6 pm today. Lake elevation is 852 ft. 5 ft lower than where it will be.
Reader Comments (4)
How quick can we get another trail crew leader class organized?
Holy Cow!
I can only imagine how much of south loop is underwater.
Who's up for some
bikingboating this weekend?Yikes... I was thinking about going to take a look... I guess there is no need!