‘We’ll come back stronger’: Main road opens, curfew lifted in flood-ravaged McCaysville

Around lunchtime Thursday, the aroma of charcoal smoke hung heavy on the corner of Market Street and Blue Ridge Drive.

People dressed in camo, trucker caps, sweatshirts and smudgy jeans gathered around a grill outside McCaysville Drug and Gun. Chad Rich was loading down plates with pork chops, baked beans, slaw, fries.

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“The good Lord will pull us through every one of these things,” said Rich, whose family owns Ricky Rich Construction in Blairsville. “That’s the man in charge. There’s a reason for it we don’t understand. We’re just here to do a good deed.”

Among those lining up were volunteers from the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief, all dressed in bright yellow shirts.

Mayor Terry Arp also showed up and insisted that everyone in town -- locals, visiting volunteers, officials, media -- get something to eat.

“We don’t want anyone to leave here hungry,” he said.

Arp is 69 and an electrical lineman by trade. He lives on high ground, about 400 feet from the Toccoa River, which morphed into a monster one week earlier. But now, he can sit on his front porch again and let the river give him peace.

“It’s a blessing and it can be a curse, as you can see, but it’s more of a blessing,” he said. “Most of the time, you can sit out there and kind of clear your mind and watch people fish.”

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Thursday brought some mileposts in the long road to recovery. Blue Ridge Drive -- Georgia Highway 5 -- is back open to traffic. The 6 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew has been lifted and streets and sidewalks are clear of mud and debris.

“I mean, pull your big boy pants up and get with the program,” he said. “You can cry all you want, but that ain’t gonna help.”

Another sign of progress and resilience: The staff of McCaysville Drug and Gun is open for people who need their medication.

The flood scoured the store, and it now looks like a haphazard work site with ladders, wires and yellow “Do Not Cross” tape. But the owner put all the medication in an RV behind the store, and customers can come in from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to pick up their prescriptions.

“Even though our surroundings are not the best in the world, everyone has been very patient with us and just very appreciative that we are here for them,” said Jan Beck, the customer service manager for the store. “We are here manning the phones and dispensing the medication to our patients. We are strong and we’ll come out stronger in the end for it.”

Another one who showed up to break bread with townspeople and volunteers was McCaysville Police Chief Mike Earley.

“When you talk to these people who’ve lived here their whole lives and they lost everything, it hurts,” he said. “We’ll be okay, the city will be okay. We’ll come back stronger than we were.”

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