Flood waters overturned a Gwinnett school bus and pushed around several others at a lot near Parkview High School. The district closed schools after initially saying opening would be delayed 90 minutes.September 21, 2009 - Updated 20 minutes ago
The deluge of rain that closed schools, highways and railroads across metro Atlanta turned deadly early Monday in Gwinnett and Douglas counties, authorities said.
Gwinnett police Cpl. David Schiralli said a woman drove through a washed-out portion of Lawrenceville Highway near Desiree Drive.
"The vehicle was swept away by the water," Schiralli said. "The vehicle went under water and the woman driver drowned."
The woman's name was not immediately released.
In Douglas County, spokesman Wes Tallon said a man's body had been found downstream from where a car was swept into a creek on North Helton Road.
A foot or more of rain Sunday and overnight forced schools to shut down Monday in several north Georgia counties, including Gwinnett, Douglas, Paulding and Carroll counties in metro Atlanta. Carrollton City schools were also closed for the day.
Roads were closed by high water throughout the metro area, and in Douglas County, flooding washed out the main line of the Norfolk Southern railroad near Villa Rica.
While the flood warning was posted after midnight for Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, eastern Cobb, Forsyth and Gwinnett counties, the worst flooding appeared to be in Douglas and Paulding counties, which had been under a flood warning since earlier in the evening.
There, National Weather Service radar estimated that as much as 15 inches of rain had fallen since Friday, much of it beginning on Sunday afternoon, when a series of strong storms began training, or following one another, northward through the area.
Those storms were still dumping rain across the western suburbs at 4 a.m.
The Weather Service said 3 to 7 inches had fallen just since 9 p.m. Sunday from Franklin in west Georgia through Carrollton and Douglasville to Dallas.
In addition to the flood warnings, a flood watch was in effect through Tuesday morning for all of north and central Georgia, as streams such as Sweetwater Creek in the western suburbs and Big Creek to the north continued to rise. Forecasters said that storms still west of Georgia could bring metro Atlanta another 1 to 5 inches of rain, causing major flooding along the Chattahoochee River, as well as along Peachtree and Nancy creeks.
Other parts of the state were also hard hit by the heavy rain.
In the northwest corner, a flood warning was posted for Catoosa, Chattooga, Walker and Whitfield counties, where an estimated 4 to 8 inches of rain had fallen since 8 p.m. Sunday. Schools were open Monday in Whitfield County, but closed in the other three counties.
To the northeast, Stephens County schools were closed Monday and a state of emergency was declared as much of the county was without running water because of flooding.
Flash flood warnings were also issued before daybreak for Hall, Banks, Jackson and Barrow counties.
Several areas of metro Atlanta were impacted by flooding Monday morning:
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