In July 1994, a flood in Americus and Sumter County took the lives of Josephine Spencer Anderson, Oscar Brown, Roger Allen Cornelius, Freddie Hawkins, Kedrick Hawkins, Kourtney Hawkins, Hilton Howard, John Alton Hurley III, Kathy Renea Hurley, Idell Moye Jackson, Eugene Marner, Kent Lamar Marner, Walter Davenport Stapleton III, Gloria D Tatum, and Tomeka C Woodham, and many others responded during this most trying time with immense bravery, courage, and selflessness.