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By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal
A Thursday night rain event washed out Mushatt Road off Hilltop Road in the Leothatchee area of Lowndes County, but Lowndes County Engineer David Butts said the road that was washed out Friday morning was already reopened by Friday afternoon.
Hilltop Road suffered washouts during the heavy rains and high waters over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays and had been temporarily reopened. However, Butts said the county got “more than one and a half inches of rain” Thursday night.
Butts said the county has been putting temporary pipe in the road to allow residents to get back and forth to their homes until it can know what FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) will provide to put a permanent structure in.
He said temporary pipe was installed Friday afternoon and that no one was really kept out of their homes. He said, “We didn’t have to put anybody up.” However, Butts said he did contact the Red Cross just in case.
Butts said, “Until we know what FEMA is going to do, we are not going to do anything permanent. We don’t want to have to go in and just redo everything. We’re just trying to keep something in there so they (residents) can get back and forth home.”