'Very minor flooding' forecast

CARYVILLE - The National Weather Service is predicting "very minor flooding" will hit Caryville and Blountstown over the next few days. 

The remnants of Tropical Storm Ida have dropped torrential rains over parts of Alabama and Georgia. With 
that water moving downstream, the Choctawhatchee River in Caryville stood at 8.03 feet Wednesday morning and is expected to rise to the action stage of 10 feet Thursdsay morning, said Al Mattson, a hydrometeorological technician with the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. 

It will rise again and crest at 12.1 inches, or 1 inch above the flood stage Saturday afternoon. The river will recede below the flood stage by early Sunday morning, Mattson said. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency bought out many Caryville homeowners because the entire city was in a floodplain. The idea was to tear down the homes and forbid the city and county from ever redeveloping on the purchased land so FEMA would not have to replace the damaged homes every time there was a flood. 

Another option was for the government to pay for houses to be rebuilt higher than the 100-year flood level. The buyout proceeded, and now much of the land is available only for recreational purposes. 

In Blountstown, the Apalachicola River is "rising pretty good today," Mattson said Wednesday 

On Wednesday morning, it was up to 10 feet and expected to reach the flood stage of 16.5 feet early Friday and recede Friday night. 

"It's nothing out of the ordinary for Blountstown," Mattson said. 

A series of storms that began March 26 wreaked havoc across the Panhandle, leading to flooding along the Choctawhatchee, Blackwater, Chipola, Shoal and Ochlockonee rivers. The current flooding is expected to be much lower than the 30 feet that some areas saw in March and April. Those storms also caused more than $2 million in damage to Bay County roads.