Flint River water levels should return to normal by Monday

ALBANY — With the memories of December’s flood still fresh in their minds, area residents have been keeping close tabs on the Flint River and Kinchafoonee Creek and have, no doubt, noticed a steady rise in water levels.

Due to several recent heavy rains, the Flint has risen 13 feet in just six days to 20.13 feet at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. That’s four feet above The National Weather Services’ action level of 16 feet, but well below the river’s flood stage of 26 feet. In December the river crested at 35 feet, nine feet over flood stage.

The good news is that Flint water levels are currently falling and should to normal level by Monday.

The NWS’s Jenaie McDermott said Wednesday the slight rise in the river was due to heavy rains over the past weeks.

“We have gotten between three or four inches of rain from Thursday through Saturday morning, and a week prior to that we also had some pretty good rainfall,” McDermott said.

McDermott added the remainder of the week looks pretty dry.

The story is the same for the Kinchafoonee Creek, except that the creek began to rise on April 1, and reached a high of 12.16 feet on Monday, nearly a foot below flood stage of 13 feet. Like the Flint, the Kinchafoonee has been receding rapidly and is forecast to reach its normal stage of six feet by Monday.