Floodwaters cover parts of McCaysville, Georgia, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, after heavy rain hit the area overnight. (Tracey Trumbull/Local 3 News via AP)
Torrential rain triggered damaging flash flooding in parts of northern Georgia and southern Tennessee, and topped an all-time flood record.
Homes and businesses flooded
This photo provided by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources shows flooding in Fannin County, Georgia, on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (Georgia Department of Natural Resources via AP)
The heavy rain started late Wednesday night and just before midnight, water began reaching homes and threatening businesses in the towns of Blue Ridge and Cherry Log, Georgia, about 75 miles north of Atlanta.
The hardest hit areas appear to have been the towns of McCaysville and Copperhill, straddling the Georgia and Tennessee border.
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Photos and video posted to social media showed water from ankle- to waist-deep in McCaysville early Thursday after the flood wave from the Toccoa River arrived just after 2 a.m. First responders deployed rafts for rescues.
The severity of the flood prompted a rare flash flood emergency from the National Weather Service early Thursday morning, alerts only issued for severe life-threatening flooding capable of catastrophic damage.
The flood crest early Thursday morning topped the all-time record at Copperhill, Tennessee, in 80 years of records, according to the National Weather Service.
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(MORE: 4 things to know about flash flood emergencies)
Why it happened
A band of showers and thunderstorms rolled across the southern Appalachians ahead of a cold front on the evening of Nov. 4.
But these bands of rain didn’t move through quickly.
For several hours, clusters of heavy rain stalled temporarily, producing rainfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour.
By the time the rain finally ended, from 5 to 11 inches of rain had fallen over an area only 20 miles long by 10 miles wide over Fannin and Gilmer counties, Georgia.
The area’s mountainous terrain lead to rapid runoff into creeks and rivers, including the Toccoa and Ocoee rivers.
And its overnight timing only added to the danger, as many were likely asleep when water was rising.
Rainfall accumulation during the flash flood of Nov. 4-5, 2026, in northern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee. Some areas measured up to 11 inches of rain.
This was only the latest in a string of flash flood events over the last couple of weeks across parts of the South, including Florida and the Desert Southwest.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.