Something about distressed amusement parks visually arrests Americans unlike other images of areas in crisis.
Like Six Flags in Louisiana during and after Hurricane Katrina, Georgia’s Six Flags is submerged under murky brown floods, parts of the rollercoaster disappearing under the opaque brown waters. Storms “stretching from Tennessee to Georgia to North Carolina” have flooded the area, killing at least six residents and trapping many others in their homes. A two year old boy was swept from his father’s arms in the flooding, later found dead downstream.
A breached levee in Trion, GA caused the evacuation of over 1,500 people, and several areas are without power. Also, the flood waters are cold, causing hypothermia in many victims. Schools across the waterlogged state remain closed and no relief is in sight until the end of the week. Meteorologists blame the flooding on a phenomenon known as “training,” when an area is repeatedly battered by high-yield thunderstorms.