Sweetwater Creek in the back yard. A line that let go somewhere between the meter box and the water heater. A floor drain pushing sewage back into the laundry room. Those are three different jobs with three different sets of rules in Austell, and the first thing worth knowing is which one you have.
Water Damage Cobb County is a free referral service that connects callers with independent local water damage restoration providers. It is not a contractor and does not do the drying, cleaning or repair work. When you call the number on this page you speak with a local restoration provider, and that provider assesses the damage, prices the job and carries it out.
The rest of this page is the local record a homeowner or a provider needs before work starts in Austell: what the National Weather Service says goes under water at each level of the creek, what the September 2009 flood reached, which pipes belong to the city and which belong to you, how to tell city sewer from a septic tank, and what the city’s flood and permit rules say about repairs. Each figure is tied to the agency that published it.
Water in the house now? Call to be connected with a local water damage restoration provider serving Austell.
Before you step into a wet room
The CDC’s guidance is to switch off the main power only if you can reach the panel from a dry place, and never to switch power on or off while standing in water. If the panel can only be reached through standing water, an electrician turns the power off. Creek water and sewage are contaminated, so keep children and pets out of it.
Read the gauge: Sweetwater Creek foot by foot
Sweetwater Creek runs through Austell on its way from southwestern Paulding County across southwestern Cobb and south into eastern Douglas County. It is 45.6 miles long and a tributary of the Chattahoochee River. The city describes itself as 5.7 square miles of relatively flat ground with the creek flowing through it, and that combination is where most of Austell’s flood record starts.
The creek has a gauge near Austell, just north of Interstate 20, and the National Weather Service attaches named places to its levels. That turns a number on a screen into a street. The live reading is on the Weather Service gauge page for Sweetwater Creek near Austell, and the ladder below lets you check that reading against what the Weather Service expects at each height.
| Creek level at the Austell gauge | What the National Weather Service says |
|---|---|
| 8 feet | Action stage. The creek is high but below flood stage. |
| 10 feet | Flood stage. Minor flooding begins. |
| 12 feet | Sunlight Drive in Cobb County begins to flood. |
| 13 feet | Moderate flood stage. Water starts to reach a few mobile homes on Brook Forest Road. |
| 15 feet | Sunlight Drive and Old Marietta Road in Cobb County flood. |
| 17 feet | Major flood stage. Homes on Brooks Drive are added to the list. |
| 20 feet | Old Alabama Road and Maxham Road flood. Powder Springs, Noses and Olley creeks back up into nearby neighborhoods. |
| 26 feet | Homes and businesses on the Bankhead and Veterans Memorial highways are flooded, and a portion of Interstate 20 over the creek begins to flood. |
| 30 feet | Water is up to 20 feet deep in some places. |
Two cautions on reading the ladder. The Weather Service places Sunlight Drive, Old Marietta Road and Brooks Drive in Cobb County, which is not the same as saying each one is inside the Austell city limits, and that was not confirmed for this page. The same statements also name streets on the Douglas County side of the creek; those are left out here because Austell’s rules do not reach them.
The 20-foot line matters to people who live nowhere near the main channel. Once Sweetwater is that high, the Weather Service says Powder Springs, Noses and Olley creeks back up into nearby neighborhoods. A house near one of those creeks can take water because of the level on Sweetwater, not only because of rain on its own street.
For a picture of where the water spreads, the city points residents to the U.S. Geological Survey’s flood inundation mapper for Sweetwater Creek, which covers the creek from Interstate 20 north through Austell and is keyed to the same gauge. The link is on the city’s flood inundation mapping page.
If creek water has been inside your building, call to speak with a local restoration provider about what can be dried and what has to come out.
September 22, 2009: 30.82 feet
The top of the ladder is not hypothetical. On September 22, 2009 the Austell gauge recorded 30.82 feet and a flow of 31,500 cubic feet per second, the highest in its record. Flood stage is 10 feet. The next highest crest on the Weather Service’s list is 21.81 feet in July 2005, about 9 feet lower.
The U.S. Geological Survey found that the peak near Austell stood more than 6 feet above the estimated stage of the 500-year flood. The city’s own flood page puts it another way: 300 times the creek’s normal flow, and the highest in more than 108 years of measurement.
| Crest | Date |
|---|---|
| 30.82 feet | September 22, 2009 |
| 21.81 feet | July 12, 2005 |
| 20.0 feet | July 8, 1916 |
| 19.9 feet | February 4, 1982 |
| 19.3 feet | March 18, 1990 |
The Weather Service says an estimated 10 to 20 inches of rain fell in under 24 hours on September 20 and 21. Its statewide toll for the flood is 10 deaths, property damage finally put at $500 million, and more than 20,000 homes, businesses and other buildings with major damage, 16,981 of them residences. The Geological Survey, citing FEMA, counts 16,981 homes and 3,482 businesses affected and damages over $193 million. The two agencies are measuring different things, and both sets of figures are for Georgia as a whole, not for Austell.
The federal disaster, DR-1858-GA, was declared on September 24, 2009. FEMA approved about $59 million in individual assistance across 13,336 applications statewide.
What the city photographed under water
The City of Austell keeps a photo record of September 2009, and its captions read like a list of where a restoration job in this city may have a flood history behind it. The residential names are the Cypress Club and Deerfield Creek subdivisions and Brook Forest Mobile Home Park. One caption shows city staff rescuing residents from Deerfield Creek.
- The Austell-Powder Springs Road bridge at Legion Park
- Maxham Road at Old Alabama Road
- Perkerson Mill Road, including its junction with Flint Hill Road
- Owens Drive and Windy Lane
- Veterans Memorial Highway
- The Caraustar plant and the Norfolk Southern rail line beside it
- The city’s own Public Works maintenance facility
Downtown still carries the mark. The city’s downtown design standards, adopted October 4, 2021, say about 23.4 percent of the land in the downtown study area is vacant and that most of it cannot be built on because of floodplains and stream buffers.
Clarkdale, the 1932 mill village next door, is unincorporated Cobb County and outside the City of Austell, so none of the city rules on this page attach to it. It has its own 2009 story: Noses Creek flooded Clarkdale Elementary School after students had been evacuated, and the school was later demolished and rebuilt elsewhere. Flood work across the county is covered on the page about flood damage restoration in Cobb County.
Austell runs its own water and sewer
A burst main or a dry tap in Austell is not automatically a Cobb County Water matter. The City of Austell operates its own water distribution system: about 3,300 customers on a 19-mile network, roughly 63 percent of them inside the city limits. The city buys treated water wholesale from the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority, and for those customers the bill comes from the City of Austell.
| What you see | Who it belongs to | Where the contact is |
|---|---|---|
| Water coming up in the street or at the meter, on a City of Austell bill | City Public Works, open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a separate after-hours line for water and sewer | The city’s Contact Public Works page |
| A sewer main or manhole overflowing, on a City of Austell bill | The city’s Sanitary Sewer Division | The city’s Contact Public Works page |
| A meter that keeps turning with every tap off | The owner. City Hall will do a meter check, then it is a plumber’s job | City Hall’s main number on the city website |
| A sewer backup or a gushing water line, on a Cobb County Water System bill | Cobb County Water System’s emergency response and dispatch line | The county water system’s sewer page |
| Water already inside the building | The owner, and the restoration provider the owner hires | The call button on this page |
The city lists its daytime Public Works line and two after-hours numbers, one for water and sewer and one for streets, on its Contact Public Works page. Phone numbers change, so this page sends you to the city’s own list instead of copying it.
The line that decides who pays is the meter. The city says its responsibility ends there and that it is not responsible for the plumbing from the meter into a home or business. A leak between the meter and the house is the customer’s, and the city’s advice is to contact a plumber.
Finding the meter takes a minute. The city says the box is typically at the front of the property near the street, plastic, and usually marked “water” on the lid. Turn off every tap and appliance and watch the display: if it keeps climbing, water is leaving the pipe somewhere on your side.
An Austell address is not always a City of Austell account
Austell mailing addresses reach well beyond the city limits. The city’s utility, permit and floodplain rules described here apply inside the City of Austell system. The name at the top of your water bill tells you which utility serves you, and that is the one to call.
Blue poly pipe between the meter and the house
The city’s Public Works FAQ carries an entry on leaking “blue poly”, polybutylene pipe running from the meter to the house, and the dates it gives are homes built between January 1, 1978 and July 31, 1995. Read those as the years this pipe went into the ground in Austell. That is the stretch of pipe the city has already said is the owner’s.
The Census Bureau’s latest five-year survey estimates about 514 Austell homes were built in the 1980s and 1990s and about 619 in the 1970s, so a fair share of the city’s housing falls in or near that window. If a house dates from those years and the yard between the meter and the foundation stays soft, or the meter moves with everything off, ask a plumber what the service line is made of.
City sewer or septic tank? The bill tells you
Not every Austell property drains to a city sewer. The city’s test is the utility bill: a separate sewer line item means the property is on city sewer, and no sewer charge means a private septic system. With septic, the city says the home or business owner maintains, repairs or replaces every part of the system, and questions go to Cobb County Environmental Health.
On the city side, the Sanitary Sewer Division looks after more than 51 miles of sewer, more than 700 manholes and two pump stations, carrying about a million gallons of wastewater a day. A blockage in a city main is a call to the city. What it left on your floor is still a cleanup inside your walls.
Either way the water is sewage, and federal guidance treats it differently from a clean supply-line leak. The EPA’s advice for sewage is to bring in a professional experienced with contaminated water, and the CDC says drywall and insulation that sewage has reached are removed and discarded, not dried in place. The full process is on the page about sewage cleanup in Cobb County.
Sewage or creek water on the floor? Call to be connected with a local restoration provider, and say at the start that the water is contaminated.
Flood zone, Class 5 and the twelve-year 50 percent count
Austell’s current FEMA flood map took effect on March 14, 2013. The city lists four zones on it: A, where no base flood elevation is given; AE, where elevations are given; AO, for shallow sheet flow or ponding; and shaded X, the moderate-hazard band between the 100-year and 500-year limits. Flood zone questions go to Public Works Stormwater Management.
The city holds a Class 5 rating in FEMA’s Community Rating System. FEMA’s list of eligible communities effective October 1, 2026 shows Austell at Class 5, which carries a 25 percent premium discount for flood insurance policyholders inside the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area. An older city page still says Class 8; the Class 5 figure is the current one, and FEMA can change a class at review.
The rule that can change a repair job is substantial damage. Under the city’s definition, a building is substantially damaged when restoring it to its condition before the damage would cost 50 percent or more of its market value before the damage. Substantial improvement is counted cumulatively: reconstruction and rehabilitation over a twelve-year period that add up to 50 percent of market value.
That twelve-year count is easy to overlook. As the definition reads, reconstruction and rehabilitation work done earlier in the period counts toward the same 50 percent as work done now, and how the city applies that to a particular building is a question for the city. The city’s page gives the definitions and does not spell out what an owner must do once the line is crossed, so anyone repairing a building in a mapped flood zone should talk to Public Works before the work starts, not after.
In the floodway
The city says all encroachments in the floodway, including fill, new construction and substantial improvements, are prohibited unless a registered professional engineer or architect certifies they will not raise flood levels during the base flood. A Floodplain Development Permit application is linked from the city’s floodplain pages.
Permits at the Threadmill Complex
Permits come from the city’s Community Affairs Department, which shares the Threadmill Complex on Austell-Powder Springs Road with City Hall and Public Works and takes applications through an online portal. The department handles building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits. Its contact details and the portal are on the city’s permits page.
| Permit | What the city’s page says it covers |
|---|---|
| Building | Erecting, enlarging, altering, removing, demolishing or repairing a structure |
| Plumbing | Installing, removing, altering or replacing plumbing, gas or drain pipe work, or any fixture or water heating equipment |
| Electrical | New service equipment, relocating or upgrading a service, and connecting fixed appliances and equipment |
| Mechanical | Installing or repairing heating, ventilating, cooling and refrigeration systems |
General building permit fees follow the value of the project. The page lists no exemptions, which leaves the common water damage question open: does replacing drywall and flooring after a leak need a permit? The honest answer is to ask Community Affairs before the work starts. A replaced water heater or rerouted supply line falls under the plumbing wording as written.
The city’s planning FAQ says building plans must be approved before a building permit is issued and to allow up to five days for review. Repairs are inspected against Georgia’s state minimum codes, which the Department of Community Affairs lists as the 2024 residential, building, plumbing and mechanical codes and the 2023 National Electrical Code, each with Georgia amendments.
Alerts, shelter and who comes
The city sends emergency notices, floods and water system problems among them, through Nixle text alerts. Sign-up instructions are on the city’s flood warning page. The fire department’s designated shelter is the Collar Community Center on Joe Jerkins Boulevard; a shelter opens only when the city decides to open it.
Austell Fire and Emergency Services works from two stations. Station 1 on Mulberry Street is where the department keeps its rescue boat, and Station 2 is on Austell-Powder Springs Road. The county-level agency is the Cobb County Emergency Management Agency.
One warning from the city itself: its online service request system gives each request a tracking number and is not for emergencies. If people are in danger from rising water, the call is 911. A restoration provider comes afterward, for the building.
Austell’s houses
The Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey estimates about 3,176 housing units in the City of Austell with a median year built of 1993. About a third went up between 2000 and 2009, about 19 percent date from the 1970s and about 14 percent from before 1960. The margins of error are wide for a city this size, so treat these as proportions, not counts.
About 79 percent of homes are detached houses and about 65 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied, with roughly 300 duplex units in the mix. For water damage that means most calls involve an owner who is responsible for the whole building, from the service line in the yard to the roof. With building dates spread from before 1960 to the 2000s, it also means plumbing of very different ages from one house to the next.
Downtown is the original town center. On historic status, the National Park Service says National Register listing alone places no restrictions on what a private owner does with a property unless the project receives federal assistance, though local ordinances can still apply. Downtown is covered by the city’s 2021 design standards. Whether a given repair is affected is a question for Community Affairs.
Rain, freezes and damp air
The weather figures here come from the NOAA station at Atlanta Fulton County Airport, not from a gauge in Austell. Its 1991 to 2020 normals are 48.13 inches of rain a year on about 123 days. July is the wettest month at 5.01 inches and September the driest at 3.36.
The driest month on paper produced both the 2009 record and the Helene flood. Over September 25 to 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene put 9.61 inches on that station in three days, close to three normal Septembers of rain. Sweetwater Creek near Austell crested at 14.33 feet on September 28, a moderate flood on the ladder above.
Cold does its damage from inside the walls. In December 2022 the same station fell to 11 F on the 23rd and 8 F on the 24th, and lows stayed below freezing every night through the 28th. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported three Cobb County buildings closed after pipes froze and burst, and the Cobb County Fire Department overrun with burst-pipe and flooding calls as the pipes thawed. For a supply line that has let go, see the page on emergency water removal in Cobb County.
Then there is the air. NOAA’s hourly normals for a mid-July day at that station show the dew point between 67.5 and 69.8 F at every hour of the 24. University of Georgia Extension’s guidance is to dry wet materials within 48 hours of water damage and keep indoor relative humidity under 50 to 60 percent. It also notes that Georgia has no licensing requirement for mold professionals, which is covered with the rest of the subject on the page about mold remediation in Cobb County.
What cleanup costs
No published price guide breaks out Austell, and Water Damage Cobb County does not set or quote prices. The nearest dated benchmark is HomeAdvisor’s national cost guide, updated June 17, 2026. These are HomeAdvisor’s estimates for the whole country, not a provider’s quote.
| HomeAdvisor national estimate, June 17, 2026 | Figure |
|---|---|
| Average water damage restoration job | $3,868 |
| Typical range | $1,383 to $6,369 |
| Clean water, per square foot | About $3.50 |
| Gray water, per square foot | About $5.25 |
| Black water, per square foot | About $7.50 |
The last row is the one most likely to apply to Sweetwater Creek. General summaries of the trade’s water categories put rising water from rivers and streams in the same class as sewage, so a creek flood is generally treated as black water, though the category on any job is set by what is found at the building. The provider you are connected with inspects the building and prices the job; ask for the scope in writing.
The call, and what Austell residents ask
The call is free. It connects you with an independent local restoration provider, and the work, the price and any agreement are between you and that provider. Many participating providers offer 24-hour emergency service; availability is not guaranteed, and no arrival time is promised here. Georgia licenses general contractors, electricians, plumbers and heating and air contractors, according to the state Attorney General’s office, and other trades are treated differently, so ask the provider what license and insurance it carries for the work it proposes.
Neighbors on the same creek system have their own pages: water damage restoration in Powder Springs, GA, where Sweetwater Creek has a second gauge, and water damage restoration in Mableton, GA. The county overview is on the page about water damage in Cobb County.
Call to be connected with a local water damage restoration provider for your Austell home or business.
Questions people ask
Is my Austell home in a flood zone, and who can tell me?
The city’s current FEMA flood map took effect on March 14, 2013 and shows zones A, AE, AO and shaded X. Flood zone questions go to Public Works Stormwater Management, whose number is on the city’s Contact Public Works page. An individual map panel can be revised after that date, so check the address on FEMA’s map service as well before you insure or repair.
How high did Sweetwater Creek get in 2009, and which roads flood first when it rises?
The gauge near Austell peaked at 30.82 feet on September 22, 2009, more than 20 feet above its 10-foot flood stage and about 9 feet above the previous record. On the way up, the National Weather Service lists Sunlight Drive in Cobb County beginning to flood at 12 feet, a few mobile homes on Brook Forest Road at 13 feet, Old Marietta Road at 15 feet and homes on Brooks Drive at 17 feet.
Who do I call after hours if a City of Austell water main or sewer line breaks?
The city publishes a separate after-hours line for water and sewer, and another for streets, on its Contact Public Works page. The daytime Public Works office is open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Those numbers are for customers of the City of Austell system. If anyone is in danger, call 911. A restoration provider handles the water inside the building, not the broken main.
Is a leak between the water meter and my house my responsibility or the city’s?
Yours. The city says its responsibility ends at the meter and that it is not responsible for plumbing from the meter into a home or business. Its test: turn off every tap and appliance and watch the meter. If the display keeps climbing, the leak is on your side and the city’s advice is to contact a plumber. City Hall will do a meter check if you ask.
I have an Austell address but pay Cobb County Water. Who do I call for a sewer backup?
Call the utility named on your bill. Cobb County Water System tells its customers to use its emergency response and dispatch line for a sewer backup in the home or the street, or for a water line that is gushing or leaking severely; the number is on the county water system’s sewer page. The City of Austell numbers and rules apply only to accounts on the city’s own system.
Do I need a permit in Austell to replace drywall, flooring, wiring or plumbing after water damage?
The city’s permit page says a building permit is required to alter or repair a structure, a plumbing permit for any pipe work, fixture or water heating equipment, and an electrical permit for service work and fixed appliance connections. It lists no exemptions, so it does not say that drywall or flooring alone is exempt. Ask the Community Affairs Department before work starts.
What is the 50 percent rule for flood-damaged homes in Austell?
Under the city’s definition, a building is substantially damaged when restoring it to its pre-damage condition would cost 50 percent or more of its market value before the damage. Improvements are counted cumulatively over twelve years toward the same 50 percent. The city’s page gives the definitions only, so owners in a mapped flood zone should speak with Public Works before repairs begin.
Does Austell’s Class 5 rating lower my flood insurance premium?
It can, if your policy covers a building inside the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area. FEMA’s Community Rating System list effective October 1, 2026 shows Austell at Class 5, which carries a 25 percent premium discount for those policyholders. FEMA reviews classes and they can change, so confirm the current figure with your insurance agent. An older city page that says Class 8 is out of date.
How fast does mold start after a leak, and is mold remediation licensed in Georgia?
The EPA says water-damaged areas and items should be dried within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth, and University of Georgia Extension gives 48 hours. Extension also notes Georgia has no licensing requirement for mold professionals, and the state Department of Public Health says mold inspection, testing and remediation have no enforceable state or federal standards. That leaves the checking to the owner.
My house was built in the 1980s or 1990s. Should I ask about polybutylene pipe?
It is a fair question for a plumber. The city’s Public Works FAQ has an entry on leaking blue polybutylene pipe between the meter and the house, and the dates it gives are homes built from January 1, 1978 to July 31, 1995. That section of pipe is on the owner’s side of the meter, so a leak there is the owner’s to find and fix.
How do I know if I am on city sewer or a septic tank in Austell?
Look at the utility bill. The city says a separate sewer line item means the property is on city sewer, and no sewer charge means a private septic system. With septic, the owner is responsible for maintaining, repairing or replacing every part of it, and the city refers questions to Cobb County Environmental Health.
What does water damage cleanup usually cost?
There is no published figure for Austell. HomeAdvisor’s national guide, updated June 17, 2026, gives an average of $3,868 and a typical range of $1,383 to $6,369, with about $7.50 a square foot for black water, the class general summaries give to sewage and rising creek water. Those are HomeAdvisor’s national estimates. The provider you are connected with prices the actual job after seeing it.
Does this site do the work itself?
No. Water Damage Cobb County is a free referral service, not a restoration contractor. It connects callers with independent local providers and does not perform, supervise or guarantee any work. Before hiring, ask the provider what license and insurance it holds for the job, get the scope and price in writing, and check with your insurer about what your policy covers.