STORMS SOAK THE SOUTHEAST! DEATH TOLL RISES TO 8!

Raging floods killed at least eight people in Georgia, forced evacuations of entire neighborhoods and closed parts of four major interstate highways Tuesday as furious storms pounded the Southeast.
The deluge turned placid creeks into roiling rivers, submerging entire neighborhoods and forcing evacuations across the region.

"It's a mess all over," said Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Most of the Georgia fatalities involved motorists trying to drive through floodwater.

A vehicle with one man in it was swept off a road in Douglas County, and a car carrying a woman was swept off a road in Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County, east of Atlanta, Brummer said.

Surging waters ripped apart a west Georgia trailer home about 2 a.m., tearing 2-year-old Preston Slade Crawford from his father's arms and sweeping him away.

The boy's body wasn't found until hours later.

His parents were rescued as another son, just one year old, clung to his mother's arms.

In Atlanta, stranded motorists scrambled to the tops of their car as waters rose on one of the city's busiest highways.

To the northwest, crews in the tiny Georgia town of Trion worked to shore up a levee breached by the Chattooga River and in danger of failing.

The town evacuated more than 1,500 residents, and Red Cross workers quickly set up an emergency shelter able to help hundreds nearby.

"It's a grave situation for us," said Lamar Canada, Chattooga County's emergency management director.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency Monday in the 17 counties hardest hit by flooding.

Some parts of Georgia have had more than 20 inches since Friday. And the forecast was not good.

Early Tuesday, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for counties along the Interstate 20 corridor east of the Atlanta area almost to the South Carolina line.

Additionally, several counties south of Macon, in central Georgia, were under a flash flood warning.

Much of the rest of central and northern Georgia remained under either flash flood or flood watches. "Any rain that fell has no place to go," said Georgia climatologist David Stooksbury.

"This rainfall on top of already saturated soils really made the situation worse."

The downpours come just months after much of the region emerged from an epic drought that plagued the region since 2007.

Fire and rescue crews from throughout northern Georgia -- including boats from Richmond County, more than 100 miles away -- came to the Atlanta area to conduct rescues.

Two crews, wearing scuba gear with bright lights attached, rowed down the street in the Buckhead area of the city to check on homeowners. Residents rowed their own boats and canoes down the street, rescuing neighbors and pets from homes.

Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport received about 4.5 more inches of rain in five days than it usually would in all of September, officials said.

Throughout the region, emergency officials improvised to rescue people stranded in their homes and cars. "We're using everything we can get our hands on," Douglas County spokesman Wes Tallon said.

"Everything from boats to Jet Skis to ropes to ladders."

Other southeastern states were hit less severely.

Water rose as high as window-level on some houses in North Carolina's Polk County, forcing emergency officials to evacuate homes along a seven-mile stretch of road.

Flooding in more than 20 counties in western North Carolina closed roads, delayed school and forced evacuations.