Don't think a storm needs to be a hurricane to do immense destruction, as the people of the state of Georgia found out when Tropical Storm Alberto stalled over the state for days at the start of July, 1994. Alberto began its journey to Georgia off the coast of Africa as a tropical wave and during its journey never actually reached hurricane status. In the Virgin Islands it was little more than thunderstorms, but by the time the storm reached Cuba the National Weather Service had noticed the telltale circulation of a tropical storm. They sent out a hurricane hunter aircraft, specially equipped to measure on-site phenomena. Upon return, the National Weather Service declared the wave to be the first named storm of the 1994 hurricane season, Tropical Storm Alberto.

The storm hit the Southeastern coast of the United States in the vicinity of Destin, Florida, and slowly crossed the Florida panhandle into the state of Georgia. Here Alberto slowed its northward movement until it stalled south of the Atlanta Airport. During this period towns in west Georgia in the path of Alberto received record amounts of rainfall including Columbus, Albany, and Macon. In Americus, Georgia, north of Albany, the all-time state record for rainfall in a 24-hour period was set when the city racked up a total of 21.1 inches between July 5 and 6. A total of more than 27 inches fell on the city over the 6 days of the storm.

Georgians then had to deal with the inevitable flooding as the rivers rose to record levels. In many places the rivers crested at between 5 and 15 feet above flood stage. Some of the NWS measuring stations hit 20 feet above flood level. By the time the storm and the flooding were over a total of 33 Georgians were dead.