September 2009 Flooding
Sweetwater Creek at Interstate 20, Lithia Springs, Georgia

This picture shows both lanes of Interstate 20 at Sweetwater Creek near Lithia Springs Georgia. The picture was taken from the interstate divider wall facing west. The Georgia DOT had the road closed on either side of the creek and the closures were guarded by State Troopers and Police. While we were working someone in a white sport utility vehicle actually drove across the flooded lanes on the left side of the image. The vehicle almost washed off the road.

It is not often a major Interstate highway gets closed by flooding in Georgia. Interstate 20 was closed west of Atlanta for around two days because of Sweetwater Creek flowing over it. This U.S. Geological Survey crew is completing a discharge measurement in the west bound lanes of the Interstate. They measured 5,000 cubic feet per second (CFS) crossing the interstate. The crew measuring the discharge at the actual bridge measured around 25,000 CFS.

This is the Interstate 20 bridge over Sweetwater Creek. The USGS hydrographer is hand-pulling an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler across the channel. The instrument, on the small orange catamaran in the picture, determines the depth of the channel and the discharge of the water and transmits data to a laptop in the van in the far left of the photo. The channel was up to 30 feet deep in places and discharge was around 25,000 cubic feet per second.