AUSTELL - In his state of the city speech Tuesday, Mayor Joe Jerkins said the September flood was the worst event to ever hit his city.

Austell, which has about 7,000 residents, was battered with 21 inches of relentless rain over a two-day period in late September, causing waterways such as Sweetwater Creek to overflow, drowning low-lying neighborhoods. More than 700 of the city's 2,500 homes were damaged by floodwaters, he said.

"It's the worst thing I guess that's ever happened to Austell since it's been established," Jerkins told the Austell Business Association during his talk.

"But we're going to get through it. We got a long way to go to get these people's houses back together," he said.

Of the 700 damaged homes, 220 have applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be bought out. Jerkins says FEMA pays 75 percent, The Georgia Emergency Management Agency pays 10 percent and the city pays 15 percent of that cost. But the mayor doesn't believe FEMA will buy more than 20 or so of the damaged homes.

The city requires houses to be built three feet above the 100-year floodplain, which is stricter than FEMA, which only requires houses to be built one foot above the floodplain. The reasoning behind it, Jerkins said, is so homeowners can obtain less expensive insurance. Even though floodwaters rose 14 feet above the floodplain, houses three feet above the floodplain don't qualify to be bought out under FEMA regulations, Jerkins said.

"They've got rules and they're not going to change them for us," he said.

The damaged houses range in value from $60,000 to more than $250,000. Some had small amounts of water damage while others had 14 feet of water. Damages to city property is close to $3 million, Jerkins said, although the city does have up to $10 million in insurance coverage on its buildings.

What FEMA, GEMA and the city's insurance company ultimately decide to do is still being considered, he said.

The good news is that there were no fatalities in the flood, and that the city was able to rescue 125 people.

"Our employees worked so hard, I mean it's unreal what all they had to go through that day and on into the next morning," Jerkins said.

The lesson to be learned is to buy flood insurance if you live in the city of Austell, Jerkins said.

"People say, 'well, it was our fault 'cause it flooded 21 inches of rain.' What are you going to do? It never happened before," Jerkins said.

The mayor didn't have flood insurance, either. The house he built for his late mother in 1964, now occupied by his daughter, was flooded with seven feet of water, he said.

"I didn't have insurance because I didn't think it would happen," he said.

Jerkins said he doesn't yet know how many families have been able to move back into their homes.

"There's a good many that's not back in their houses and some of them owe more on them probably than it's worth, (and are) probably going to walk off. You know, that's going to affect us some. We're going to have to do something," he said.

Jerkins, who has been mayor since 1990, said he went from overseeing a budget of about $2 million with a staff of 36 his first year in office to a budget of $11.3 million with a staff of 98 today. Of that $11.3 million, about $600,000 comes from taxes. So if a number of the people whose homes were destroyed move out of the city, it won't impact the city's tax revenues too much, he said.

"Like I said, we only get $600,000 a year out of taxes. If we lose a fourth, that's $200,000 out of $11 million. It won't hurt us a lot," he said.

Jerkins proposes building an underground tunnel to carry the water away. Cobb County built one by Cumberland Mall a few years ago, and it's building another one in southern Cobb that's six miles long and 27 feet high, at a cost of $300 million.

"That's a big tunnel going about six miles underground and they go down approximately 200 foot," he said. "If we could get that put in the right place when Sweetwater Creek got to a certain level, it would start going in that tunnel and it never would get high and you'd have two ways for the water to leave. But you're looking at a couple of hundred million dollars probably, but look at the damage done, there's probably more than that done this time."

Jerkins said he intends to meet with the Corps of Engineers about the idea.

Clarkdale Elementary School was completely submerged by the flood. Jerkins said he and Cobb Chairman Sam Olens initially talked about rebuilding on the site.

"I think they've decided to hold off right now. They're going to get by without it. We have some property here we can work with them on something, but they've backed off right now from doing anything," Jerkins said.

A number of volunteers from surrounding states have come to help rebuild the damaged city. Ray Barnes, brother of former Gov. Roy Barnes, has been helpful with the extended stay motels his family owns, giving the city a discount for volunteer workers to stay. The city picks up the rest of the tab, Jerkins said.

Churches have also united to help, he said.

"We're doing everything we can to help the people still. It's going to take some time," he said.