Flooding caused by heavy rains devastated Georgia last week and affected a handful of Bermudians living in the area.

The deluge saw 22 inches of rainfall in parts of metro Atlanta, and caused nine deaths and an estimated $250 million in property damage.

Bermudians Gerri Dixon, Renee Ward Brown and university student Shannan Swan spoke to The Royal Gazette about the natural disaster, which left hundreds homeless. Ms Dixon lives in Buckhead, an area of downtown Atlanta hit hard by the flood.

She got a call last Monday at 3 p.m. saying her apartment complex was being evacuated.

"Once I arrived home, the whole front side of the complex was waist high in water, cars were being towed and the Fire Department was helping people to evacuate.

"The creek I normally would have to lean over the rail to see was overflowing into my back porch area and within an hour or two it had spread towards the front area of my building and [was] about ankle high."

Ms Dixon, her daughters and dogs, scrambled to find a safe place for the night.

The hotels were already filled up and because of the dogs they were unable to stay at the Red Cross, so she took a chance and went back into the apartment complex around 9 p.m.

"Just by luck the water had started to recede and I was fortunate enough just to have gotten a little water through my back door.

"I believe I was the only one in my particular building to come back that night," she said.

Though she was fortunate, Ms Dixon believes it will take "a while before everything is back to normal" the people on lower levels of the complex lost nearly everything and, as of Friday, cars were still being washed up in the flood.

"I'm still in disbelief that this even happened in Atlanta. It actually gave me an idea of what the folks in New Orleans went through with Hurricane Katrina," she said. "As for bringing the folks in the area closer, I believe it has in my complex.

"My neighbour upstairs allowed [others] to bring their furniture and important items upstairs for safety; and as we were being evacuated everyone was asking 'do you need help moving stuff, packing?' just overall looking out for one another."

Mrs. Brown lives with her family in Cobb County. She said the heavy rains came down in a short period of time and it was unlike anything she and her Atlanta-born husband Ron had ever seen.

She said: "In no time at all there were small rivers running across some of the streets in our neighbourhood and some roads around here have sections that were washed away.

"A few of our neighbour's yards looked like they had added ponds in a period of about 15 to 20 minutes.

"We had some minor flooding I say minor because compared to some we are very lucky in our garage and worked like crazy to keep it from entering our basement. We were successful for the most part but we are still trying to dry things out."

Mrs. Brown added: "Our daughter, Sadie, has not been able to attend school for two days as all of the schools in Cobb County [and surrounding counties] have been closed due to the rain. Apparently, this has never happened before."

Miss Swan, 22, is a student at Georgia State University. The floods forced her school's closure although it reopened a few days after. "The next day school resumed as normal.

"However, those who did not come to school were given an excused absence due to highways being closed, the train being shut down, and any other perils that disabled people from getting into the city."

The floods have brought the community closer together, Miss Swan said.

"As far as I know everyone is working together to try and help those in need.

"A radio station had a food/clothing drive to donate to those who lost everything. They said it was a success, and they were able to help a lot of families in need."

Many people, particularly those without proper coverage, are concerned about their future, Miss Swan added.

"The main thing that most people are upset about is not having flood insurance. "This means that people who lost their homes due to the flooding will not be able to collect any insurance money because home insurance does not cover flooding."