COVINGTON, Ga. — Businesses in Newton County put out sandbags Wednesday in hopes of keeping water out of their stores.
The parking lot outside a Ross store in Covington was flooded from all the rain that fell, leaving some people's cars stranded in the water.
Tow truck driver Casey Jones says he got several calls from people whose vehicles were stuck Wednesday evening and wanted him to fish them out.
"I stretch the cable out through there and just pull them out," Jones told Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes, showing how he hooked up his truck to the vehicles stuck in the water.
After heavy rain, the shopping plaza parking lot on Highway 278 turned into a river.
There's an actual river behind the plaza and residents told Fernandes that when it floods, the parking lot does the same.
"It's not going to go down, it's going to get worse than this tomorrow," Jones said.
At one point, the water was right up to the doors of the cars.
Contractors put sandbags down in front of the Ross store to keep the water out, but shopper Audrey Dobbins told Fernandes it may be too late.
"Ross is going to be out if it's gone (the water) in the way it looks like," Dobbins said.
Covington police told Fernandes several people kept driving their trucks through the water for fun.
An officer said that was making it harder for workers to keep the water out of these businesses.
Fernandes saw police give Alex Smith a $1,600 ticket for reckless driving. He told Fernandes he wasn't joyriding through the water. He said he went to the plaza to pay a bill at a furniture store.
"It is very crazy. (May)be I'll lose my job. My insurance goes up because of one ticket and everybody else was getting away with it," Smith said.
Store owners will have to assess the damage Thursday. In the meantime, people around the Covington area are hoping the rain is done.
WSBTV
