Watershed dams built to hold back runoff performed as designed during this month's storms, though inspectors will continue checking 120 dams across North Georgia to look for erosion damage.
The dams hold back floodwater and release it downstream over a week or so to help minimize flooding, said Jimmy Bramblett, assistant state conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Athens.
Conservation service engineers are inspecting dams in the 17 counties declared disaster areas by Gov. Sonny Perdue after up to 20 inches of rain poured down between Sept. 15 and Monday. The disaster area includes Stephens County in Northeast Georgia.
In addition, President Obama on Thursday issued a federal disaster declaration for Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas and Paulding counties, allowing FEMA to assist homeowners and the U.S. Small Business Administration to issue low-interest loans to damaged companies.
Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to survey flood damage today in the hardest-hit areas, the Associated Press reported.
Several of the flood-prevention dams had water go over their spillways - as designed when a lot of rain falls - and a few had water flow over the tops of the dams themselves, though none of the dams failed, Bramblett said.
"Most of 'em are in metro Atlanta," he said.
About half the dams in the 17-county area will get formal engineering inspections to check for damage from erosion, Bramblett said.
More than 17,000 homes and nearly 600 road crossings sit downstream of the 120 dams that will get inspected, he said.
The conservation service built more than 350 dams in Georgia since 1953, originally to protect prime farmland that in many cases has since been developed, the agency said in a news release.
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