Created: 4/7/2009 10:24:02 PM 
PIERCE COUNTY, GA -- As the Satilla River continued its slow descent, the weekend floodwaters continued to recede Tuesday, allowing many homeowners access to their homes for the first time in days.
What many found were driveways and yards still submerged, and water damage to their homes and adjacent property.
Chris Huff built his dream home near the winding Satilla river. He told First Coast News he built on ground higher than any waters had ever come, that is until torrential downpours late last week sent the Satilla flowing in all directions.
Suddenly, Huff and many of his neighbors in this rural county found themselves scrambling for thousands of sand bags and the manpower to fill them.
Enter Pierce County Emergency Operations Director Kenneth Justice and a phone loaded with reliable contacts.
"He was just amazing!" said Huff.
"He got on that phone and within hours we had the bags, the sand, volunteer firefighters, even the local high school football team, all helping to fill the sand bags and pile them up around my home!"
As the rising waters enveloped the pond in Huff's back yard, the volunteers continued their seemingly impossible task of building a barrier to Mother Nature's wrath.
In the end, the lower section of the Huff home took on about 20-inches of water, flooding drywall, carpeting and much of the furniture that could not be hoisted onto blocks piled high as risers.
With Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue declaring this and may other counties as disaster areas, it will be up to the local Emergency Operations personnel to identify and assess the water damage so that the data can be sent to FEMA.
The federal agency will then determine how much, if any federal dollars will be made available, to help undo the floodwater damage.
On Tuesday afternoon the Red Cross stopped by the home of Nathan and Michelle Taft, who, like many of their neighbors, were flooded out of their home for the past four days.
Nathan Taft told First Coast News he had never seen the Satilla rise like this in his entire life.
"When it first started coming up I got a little pond out here, and it came up out of the pond and I told her, I said, 'It's not going to get that deep.' Well, two hours later it was coming in that building and that's when we had to get up at 3-o'clock in the morning to start movin' stuff!"
Several miles away, at emergency operations, the phone continued to ring throughout the afternoon.
"And we know we have damage and we're still waiting for people to call in that have more damage to pick up."
So Red Cross volunteers were canvassing the county, finding out which of its 18,000 residents may require help. Many were still without utilities after the rains fell and the water level rose.
Michelle and Nathan Taft were asked if they would be able to stay warm of they were allowed to stay in their home Tuesday.
One Red Cross worker asked the question, point blank:
"Is your electricity on?"
Taft looked over at her two young children playing in the yard, oblivious to the new waterline by the back fence, and then she turned back to the woman in the red jacket with the white cross.
"No. We haven't had any electricity since Sunday," she said.
Her husband chimed in, "It was pretty rough for a few days there!"
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