Elba Remembers Devastating Floods

Major floods are nothing new to the Wiregrass, and no local community knows the devastation of flooding better than Elba.

The city's history is full of water marks with several major floods since the 1800's.

The most notable happened in 1990, when the Pea River crested at 48 feet and the levee broke, causing the city to be covered in water.

Those living in Elba today have said they will never be able to forget those four days without power, waiting for the flood water to leave their homes so they could start their lives over.

"The town was pretty well flooded," said Everrette Kelley. "When I came down (in my boat) the water was coming in so fast that I really had to rev my motor up to keep it in the lane with town."

"My home was not affected, but I knew people whose homes and business were. They just pulled up their bootstraps and went on, that's all that you do," said Debbie Jared.

Serious floods came again in 1994 and 1998 before the new levee system was installed.

Each time, people salvaged what they could then began again.

After building the new levee system, experts said it would be equipped with adequate flood gates to provide better flood control.

"Water is extremely powerful, but am I going to go about moving everything in my building upstairs tomorrow? No I will not," said Jared. "Would I have done that before the new levee? Absolutely. We have not had enough rain to test this levee, but we don't want to test it."

People living in Elba said they aren't worried about this weekend's rainfall affecting their city, but they are worried about what might happen to surrounding cities.