‘Stay out of the water:’ Georgia Riverkeepers share warning after Hurricane Helene

A warning from Georgia Riverkeepers after Hurricane Helene: stay out of the water.

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The state's waterways are littered with debris and sewage after Hurricane Helene .

Channel 2′s investigative reporter Sophia Choi saw that first hand when she went to the South River in DeKalb County with Riverkeeper James Tingley who says all the garbage, chemicals and sewage from overwhelmed treatment plants end up in our rivers after storms. And that's not all.

Tingley told Choi, "I'll find dogs, goats, cats on the sides of the rivers, like up in the trees where they were trying to rescue themselves. And, they just died."

The riverkeeper spent the last couple of days, checking North Georgia waterways.

At the Annistown Bridge over the Yellow River in Gwinnett County, he found trees still halfway underwater and rushing water at the Stone Mountain Dam in DeKalb County.

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At Gwinnett County's Norris Lake in Snellville, Tingley found caution tape with the area closed.

At Jackson Lake in Newton County, Tingley found a bunch of trash and brown water flowing down the lake's dam.

Tingley says he needs help cleaning up, so the rivers can heal.

"I'd love for the county to come down and get volunteers, the inmates, or whatever. If they want to come down and help us, let's clean it up," Tingley said.

In the meantime, Tingley says you should stay out of the water, or you could get sick. He says it's just too contaminated with E.coli and other nasty bacteria.

"If you got a cut on yourself, you can get it right away. Straight into your system," Tingley told Choi.

The riverkeeper says it could take two months for the waterways to return to normal, as long as there are no other big storms.

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