Chattooga Search On Hold

Chattooga River gauge July 2 zoomThe heavy rains again today have postponed recovery efforts on the Chattooga River.  The river’s flows are above 2 feet and the rain continues to fall.  The Incident Command Team met yesterday morning to re-evaluate the ongoing operations and because of the uncertainty of the river flows and the weather, efforts will be on hold again today. Meanwhile, crews continute to hike into the Five Falls Area to conduct shoreline search efforts. Scott Krein, Oconee County Emergency Management Director says the next time the river flows are sustained below 2 feet, in-water operations will continue. He went on to say “It’s frustrating when we’re forced to suspend operations because of things beyond our control.” He went on to say, “there is a family in Florida depending on us. We hate to let them down.”