September 2009 Flooding
Dog River at Ga 5, near Fariplay (02337410)

The USGS water-monitoring site at Dog River at Ga 5, near Fariplay. The blue box contains stream stage (gage height) recording equipment. A buried pipe reaches from the gage into the river, allows the stage (depth) of the river to be measured. The aerial antenna transmits gage-height data back to the USGS office in Atlanta every 15-minute, with these data showing up on our Web pages in "real time". The white "can" on the pole is a tipping bucket rain gauge, that also measures precipitation in real-time. The USGS lost a number of gages and water quality monitoring stations during the September 2009 flooding around Atlanta.

Inside the stream gage (the blue box in the picture above), showing the data logger and other equipment . The flooding at this site was so severe that the stream stage was high enough to also flood the gaging station, damaging some of the equipment. The USGS lost a number of gages and water quality monitoring stations during the September 2009 flooding around Atlanta.

The yellow pipe contains a "quick-deployment" river stage recording device. These devices record constant water pressure readings in internal memory, which are then brought back to the office and converted to river stage values. These devices are of great value, as they can be deployed in locations that have no established monitoring systems and can be used when existing monitoring devices are rendered non-functioning. They also are used on the coasts to measure hurricane storm surges (put in place where no USGS employee would want to be).