Water disasters of droughts and floods and sinkholes
already affect us more here in south Georgia
than the kinds of disasters TV news likes.
In

north Florida,
next to

a church in Albany, under

a garage in Lowndes County,
and next to the Shoney’s in Tifton,
sinkholes are spreading: can we go beyond reacting to them and work
on preventing them?

Next to a

story yesterday about disaster preparedness,
the Tifton Gazette posted this picture and caption:

Tift County experienced massive flooding in early August 2012. The
heavy rains made the then-sinkhole located on Hwy. 82 into a massive
waterfall. Tift County EMA has to be prepared for such events in our
community. Photo credit: Latasha Everson/The Tifton Gazette

Here’s

a 2011 YouTube video of the sinkhole
that says the sinkhole had been next to the Shoney’s five years already then,
two years ago.
Stephanie Springer wrote for WALB 9 and 13 August 2012,

Tifton sinkhole continues to grow,

Nearly 11 inches fell and flooded streets, homes and businesses in
Tifton and Tift County. That huge hole between Shoney’s and the
Ramada in Tifton that became a waterfall continues to grow tonight.

The hole began as a collapsed drainage pipe. It now is dubbed the
“little Grand Canyon” and the community wants it repaired.

You don’t have to travel outside of Tifton to see a breathtaking
sight. Wednesday, cars were parked along Highway 82 so folks could
take pictures of this massive hole. “From that stream coming down
here, it looks like the Grand Canyon,” said Nicolas Edwards.

But you don’t have to go to Arizona to find it. It’s right in
between the Ramada and Shoneys in Tifton. As the hole grows, so does
its popularity. It even has its own Facebook page.

Yep,
its own facebook page.
Back to WALB:

But it’s also getting more dangerous. The hotel manager at the
Ramada estimates it’s grown nearly 30 feet after this rain. “It is a
scary thought when you got the restaurant and the Ramada Inn next to
it,” said Edwards.

But It’s not the only damage caused by the flood. In four hours, the
city and the county got more than 11 inches of rain. Thursday,
representatives from Congressman Austin Scott’s office and Senator
Saxby Chambliss’s office were out looking at some of the damage. “We
are trying to get these culverts replaced that’s capable of handling
a storm event like we had yesterday,” said City manager Larry Riner.

And instead of just spending more emergency money
to deal with flooding and sinkhole problems after they happen,
maybe we should
work on preventing flooding and sinkholes before they happen.
The

Army Corps of Engineers is helping organize and effort to do that.

-jsq