On July 5th, 1994, the small South Georgia city of Americus was caught by surprise.
Rains came in suddenly, dropping 24 inches in a day according to the Centers for Disease Control
By nighttime, roads quickly disappeared.
"They called me in and I came into town on Highway 30. Highway 30 was there, 30 minutes later a dam had busted, highway 30 wasn't there," says fire marshal Zane Newman.
While the downtown was spared, the quick rains impacted some of the main roads into the city and creeks expanded, catching drivers off guard.
"Some of them were driving and they just didn't know the road, and they were just gone, they went right through it and just washed away.," says chief Allen Erkhart.
Crews came together to do everything possible to rescue people caught in the water, even taking equipment from a local construction company to reach them.
In the end, 15 people were killed in Sumter County, more than anywhere else in the state.
The CDC says the cause of around half of those were from ruptured dams spilling into creeks.
The floods were the largest natural disaster in Georgia history.
