In the wee hours of November 6, 1977, the earthen dam holding back
Kelly Barnes Lake above
Toccoa Falls gave way after three days of of steady rain.176 million gallons of water burst out into the half mile downhill run to the lip of 186 foot high Toccoa Falls. It swept down on the campus of
Toccoa Falls Bible College which was directly in its path. In that flood, and its aftermath, 39 people died. (click the link:
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/news/historical-toccoa/)
I was in full time mission work at the time. I don't remember where I was exactly that night, but I remember visiting the college for the second time in my life some months later. All seemed normal then, as it did when I was there for a evangelism seminar about four years
before the flood. Until February 29th of this year (when I had a delivery at the college for my part time courier job), I had not looked closely at the falls and the creek below in the canyon. The falls is not so impressive when you have seen Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, as I have. But it is a beautiful setting, streaming over colorful, solid rock. Now, re-reading the story of the dam break in Georgia, some 150 miles north of my home, reminds me of how God works in mysterious ways.
