Macon-Bibb crews begin cleanup after weeks of flooding

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon-Bibb public works crews spent the day moving truckloads of dirt left behind from the Ocmulgee River.

After days of heavy rain and flooding, the assistant director of parks and beautification says it’ll be days before everything is cleaned.

After a wet two weeks, crews are clearing the soggy mess.

“We’re used to it flooding on this part of the trail, obviously not 25 feet in two weeks. It brought in a lot more silt than normal,” Sam Kitchens said. 

He brought in more workers than normal — more than 40 — scraping, pulling, and shoveling dirt from the walkways at the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail. 

“Then we just came in with all our power and brought equipment in, scraping the trail up, loading the dirt and silt back out,” he said. 

Trees near the river are coated with dirt — trash hanging off limbs like Christmas tree ornaments.

Kitchens says while the county hasn’t experienced flooding like this in more than two decades, there was minimal damage. 

“A couple of places where we cracked some concrete, where the river comes in and flows in and comes out so quickly, it pulls dirt out from under roots and walkways and stuff like that,” he said. 

Fixes that’ll cost the county, but Kitchens hasn’t estimated a price tag for the repairs and labor. 

“We assess the cost after the fact because we put all of our resources towards it then we’ll quantify it after we finish,” Kitchens said. 

Kitchens says crews carried out more than a dozen truckloads of dirt and are still working to clear much more.

Most of the dirt will go to the landfill or storage.

The Ocmulgee heritage trail is still closed.