In Albany,
Georgia, on July
7, 1994, Georgia
Army National
Guard Soldiers
of Headquarters
Company, 2nd
Battalion 121st
Infantry Regiment
constructed a
protective sandbag
wall around the
Palmyra Medical
Center following
Tropical Storm
Alberto. (Photo by
Spc. Mike Carr,
124th Mobile Public
Affairs Detachment)
The Georgia Guard Response to the Flood of 1994
25 Years Later
Operation Crested River
conducted its largest natural disaster response prior to Hurricane
Katrina. On July 3, 1994, Tropical Storm Alberto began tracking
north across Georgia inundating the state with unprecedented
rainfall. Twenty-one inches of precipitation was recorded in
24 hours in Americus. With the ground already saturated from
previous rains, Alberto swiftly overloaded streams and rivers
with surface runoff. Flooding was widespread from southwest
Georgia counties to Atlanta. By July 6, the rain had washed out
roads and dams, and the Georgia National Guard had opened six
day, the units of the Macon-based 48th Infantry Brigade under
the command of Col. William Thielemann began to mobilize. By
the end of the July, more than 3,600 Guardsmen had been called
to active duty. They came from units ranging from Toccoa to
Valdosta and from Savannah to Columbus. They came together
with one mission—to help Georgians in need. The response
became known as Operation Crested River.
Major General Thomas Carden, Adjutant General of the Georgia
2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry, Carden was responsible for a
detachment of Soldiers at the Georgia Guard armory in Tifton.
Upon the declaration of a state of emergency by Governor Zell
Miller, Carden and his detachment reported for duty.
“We rallied at Cordele and were sent to Albany,” said Carden.
| July 2019 | Real Hero Report
Upon reaching Albany, the 2-121 Soldiers were tasked with
building a sand-bag dam for a local hospital. “Some of the
patients were too weak to evacuate,” recalled Carden. “The
power was out and the critical patients at the hospital relied on a
generator to supply power to ventilators and life support. If that
generator went out those people would not have survived.”
Thanks to backbreaking effort, the dam constructed by the
Soldiers of 2-121 held, and the patients were saved.
The Army Veteran on His First Guard Response Mission
was assigned to 2-121 during Crested River. Having recently
transferred into the Georgia Army National Guard from the 82nd
mission.
always remember how the service members, whose homes
were destroyed, reported for duty. That was so amazing to me,
and that will always remain in my mind as an example of the
true character of our service members and what we do in this
organization.”
and feeling amazed at the destruction of all those buildings,” said
devastating.”
With 24,000 evacuees in the area, large public facilities were
converted into temporary living quarters for displaced families.
“I was assigned to a shelter that I worked at during the day,”
citizens who had been displaced. Once the permanent housing
became available, we transported them there.”