Members of Fayetteville First United Methodist Church are helping residents

of Chateau Marnelle mobile home park clean up from Monday's flood, which

was caused by a dam breach from a nearby lake.

Church members filled buckets full of cleaning supplies to help the Chateau

Marnelle residents clean up from the flood, which overturned trash cans that

were put out for collection that day, spreading trash over the park. Dead

or dying fish were also all over the park, presumably from Lake Victor.

The "flood buckets" were distributed to residents Wednesday afternoon.

They contained cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, work gloves, air freshener,

insect repellent and other necessities, said Laura Cox, program director

at the church.

Cox said the congregation had filled up 160 similar buckets that were distributed

to hurricane victims in Florida and Alabama earlier this year. Cox said the

idea to distribute similar buckets to Chateau Marnelle residents came from

church member Pete Nelms, a captain with the Fayette County Department of

Emergency Services, one of the agencies which initially responded to the

flood.

Officials said the flood could have endangered children had it occurred

any time other than the middle of the night.

The water rose to at least several feet deep in some places, and between

20 and 25 families left their homes until the water subsided several hours

later. None of the homes had interior water damage, but the raging water

damaged underskirting to several of the homes.

A fenced-in playground at the park was also heavily damaged. The force of

the flood water was so strong, it carried away a 300-pound riding lawnmower.

The lake, actually located on the opposite side of Ga. Highway 54, emptied

after its earthen dam breached around 1 a.m. Monday. The water travelled

under a concrete culvert beneath the highway before overflowing from a drainage

ditch adjacent to Chateau Marnelle, officials said.

The water eventually drained out of the mobile home park and into two other

nearby lakes, which were able to handle the capacity.