Emergency Status for four North Georgia counties after floods

Governor Brian Kemp issued a state of emergency for four North Georgia counties after heavy rain and flash flooding tied to a storm system that produced significant runoff and stream rises on Nov. 4–5, 2026, activating state response mechanisms. ^{3 2}

The counties named in the official declaration are Fannin, Gilmer, Murray and Union; that county list appears in the Nov. 5 executive-order PDF on the governor’s website and is reflected in GEMA/HS press materials describing the initial response. ^{3 2}

The Nov. 5 executive-order document lays out the factual basis for the declaration, citing the storm, National Weather Service warnings and crests on local waterways, and it served as the primary legal record for the state action reviewed here. ³

GEMA/HS issued a press release describing ongoing support for affected communities and noting that the Nov. 5 declaration enabled state agencies to deploy resources, open shelters and coordinate response activity as recovery efforts transitioned in the days that followed. ²

Contemporary news reports published Nov. 13, 2026 state that Governor Kemp extended the state of emergency for those four counties and described the extension as running through Nov. 19; those accounts cite statements from the governor’s office and local officials. ^{1 4}

Local media reported at least one fatality in Murray County when floodwaters swept a vehicle off a road; that casualty is attributed in news accounts to the Nov. 5 storm system but is not named or documented in the executive-order PDF, so it remains a reported media account pending official coroner confirmation. ^{1 3}

Regional outlets and the state materials describe evacuations, road closures and infrastructure impacts across the area, but the materials reviewed do not include a consolidated state or county damage-assessment total, shelter-occupancy summary, or a separate signed executive-order PDF explicitly labeled as the Nov. 13 extension. ^{2 5 6}

For now, the primary official records available are the Nov. 5 executive-order PDF and GEMA/HS press releases; multiple news outlets reported the later extension and local impacts. Confirming a separate extension order, official casualty confirmation from county authorities, and authoritative damage-assessment statistics remain outstanding steps. ^{3 2 1}