It has been 17 years since the historic 2009 flood devastated parts of metro Atlanta, bringing as much as 21 inches of rain in 24 hours.
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Homes and businesses were overtaken by water, leaving some residents with a choice: rebuild or move.
Gerald Don Robinson chose to rebuild.
“The total entire deck was under water and the water was up to these slats right here at the top. There was only one foot of slat that you could observe. Otherwise it was all gone,” Robinson said.
The flood also destroyed Clarkdale Elementary School in Austell.
“When they say flash flood, it was a flash flood. It happened so fast,” a teacher recalled.
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Teachers worked to get every child to safety as floodwaters rushed through the school.
The damage to the building was so severe that the county ultimately demolished it.
A new Clarkdale Elementary School opened in 2012 on higher ground, more than a decade after the flood changed the community.
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