Basement Flooding in Smyrna, GA

Why Smyrna Homes Face Basement Flooding Risks

Local geography, climate, and housing stock all affect how water damage occurs in Smyrna. These are the most common causes our certified teams respond to in this area.

• 1Nickajack Creek is the primary drainage corridor through Smyrna and is a FEMA-designated floodway; it overtops its banks during the intense convective storms typical of the Georgia Piedmont in spring and summer, flooding neighborhoods along Veterans Memorial Highway and the lower Cumberland area.
• 2Rottenwood Creek flows northeast through Smyrna and Vinings before emptying into the Chattahoochee River; its watershed has been heavily impacted by commercial development in the Cumberland/Galleria corridor, increasing impervious surfaces and peak runoff rates that cause residential flooding downstream.
• 3The Chattahoochee River, forming Cobb County's northern boundary, reached record flood levels during Tropical Storm Alberto in 1994 and again in September 2009; high Chattahoochee stages prevent Rottenwood Creek and Nickajack Creek from draining freely, backing floodwater into Smyrna's lowest neighborhoods.
• 4Smyrna's rapid commercial development along the I-285 Cumberland corridor since the 1980s has created large areas of impervious rooftop and parking surface that funnel stormwater into Nickajack Creek faster than natural conditions, increasing flood peaks for downstream residential properties.
• 5Georgia's Piedmont red clay soils in Smyrna's hillside subdivisions become fully saturated within hours of sustained rain, generating subsurface lateral flow that enters basement walls through mortar joints and block cavities across much of the city's 1960s–1980s housing stock.