A River Rose 18 Feet Overnight — And a Whole City Shut Down!

A river rose 18 feet in a single night — and a whole city shut down. Overnight on 4–5 November 2026, slow-moving storms dropped 5 to 8 inches of rain on the mountains of northern Georgia, with up to 10 inches in the wettest valleys. The Toccoa River surged into the twin towns of McCaysville, Georgia, and Copperhill, Tennessee, cresting just over 18 feet — a new record, beating the mark set in 1990. A flash flood emergency — the highest level of flood warning — was issued as water filled homes and shops to their rooflines, and rescuers in red boats pulled people from upstairs windows. Just before 3 a.m., McCaysville police went door to door telling people to leave. At about 5:20 a.m. the city declared a state of emergency, and Police Chief Michael Earley closed every road into the city — River Road, Mobile Road, Blue Ridge Drive and Georgia Highway 68 — and shut two local bridges. A shelter opened at the Fannin County Recreation Center in Blue Ridge. By the time the water began to fall, at least 57 people had been rescued by swift-water teams from Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and Georgia State Patrol helicopters were on standby. The city's water treatment plant was shut down by the flood, forcing a boil water advisory. Downstream, the Tennessee Valley Authority had been running a flood control operation since 3 November, holding back water at Blue Ridge — but the river kept coming, and Ocoee Dam No. 3 was spilling water at about 150,000 gallons a second. In town, the flood brought fire as well as water: a propane tank caught fire outside a local business and later exploded, injuring one firefighter, and there were at least four structure fires overnight believed to have been caused by lightning. Governor Brian Kemp said the state was leading a multi-agency and multi-state response. No deaths were confirmed. The footage in this video is real flood, river and dam-release footage used to illustrate this event. Some clips show similar flooding elsewhere and are not the McCaysville event itself. #McCaysville #Georgia #FlashFlood #ToccoaRiver #OcoeeRiver #FloodEmergency #Copperhill #Tennessee #TVA #BreakingNews