The Great Atlanta Flood

Much of my old stomping grounds -- Lithia Springs, Austell, Mableton -- was devastated by this week's flood. Obi's Sister lives there and reports via e-mail:

We had some basement flooding - we're at almost the highest elevation in the county, too. The backyard is ruined - a drainage ditch broke through and washed and washed and washed. The water mark on the garage doors was about 6". But compared to what others have been through, I'm not complaining one bit. School's been out for the entire week. The water has to be boiled - no idea when water will be ok again. I-20 was closed because Sweetwater Creek crested at 30' (yes, that's thirty feet). The devastation is just unbelievable.

Thirty feet! My goodness, I've seen that creek so low you could hop across it, rock to rock, down by the Manchester Mill ruins. I hope the old mill wasn't destroyed. But she says:

try to look on the bright side - at least now we know the drought is over.

Obi's Sister has the photo and reports the statewide damage is estimated at $250 million.

The latest? They've re-routed I-20 traffic through Newnan!

My high school history teacher

I'm not kidding, OK? John Siegel is a much-beloved history teacher at Lithia Springs (Ga.) High School, and why the alumni administrator of his Facebook fan group chose this photo for the profile, I'm not quite sure. The "Siegel = Sieg Heil" joke was already stale when we used it more than 30 years ago.

At any rate, Ginny at Obi's Sister lives in Lithia Springs, where her son is enrolled in Der Fuhrer's AP European history class -- final exam essay question: "Slavic untermenschen: Threat or menace?" -- and Ginny told me that Our Supreme Aryan Leader had this Facebook page.

Oh, just wait until the Southern Poverty Law Center finds out. "Links and ties," you know . . .