MARIETTA - The ravaging floodwater began to recede across Cobb on Tuesday with no fatalities being reported in the county. The recent storms and subsequent flooding has been blamed for at least nine deaths in Georgia and Alabama.

On Monday, some parts of the county saw as much as a foot of rainfall in a single day, county executives said.

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, about 70 roads were still closed in Cobb, though there are hopes that this morning would begin a return to normal routines. For road closures see www.cobbcountyga.gov.

Marietta City students are returning to classes today, but Cobb County schools will remain closed. Cobb's athletic and extracurricular activities are canceled.

Students were evacuated Monday from Clarkdale Elementary off Wesley Drive in Austell before floodwaters inundated the school. As of Tuesday afternoon, the main building remained substantially under water, with Cobb County's Emergency Management Director Lanita Lloyd calling it a "total loss."

Cobb County School District officials have prepared a contingency plan to place the 442 Clarkdale students at nearby schools. According to the district, Austell Intermediate will host 225 students in grades 3 through 5, while Compton Elementary will take in 217 students in grades K through 2.

As for the city of Austell, Joe Jerkins, 67, who is in his 20th year as mayor, said "This is the highest I've ever seen (Sweetwater Creek), and I've been around here all my life. It's bad, but getting better."

Residents in areas like Vinings, near the Chattahoochee River, will have a long way to go.

Clarence Stowe has lived on Cochise Drive with his family for seven years, but he won't be living there for a while after the river overran its banks.

"It's just the uncertainty of not knowing how high it's going to get. We were monitoring the National Weather Web site and they were predicting it would crest at 20 feet. That's no problem," Stowe said. "But it went well above that, and crested at 28.1 feet. The amount of rainfall just stunned everyone."

State and county emergency-management officials do not yet have an overall estimate of damage, in part because they could not begin to access some areas until Tuesday afternoon. Gov. Sonny Perdue requested federal disaster assistance, which would make low-interest loans available to owners whose property was damaged and help reimburse local governments' costs from the storm.

Chairman Sam Olens said there is no question the county's damage would meet requirements for federal aid.

"Citizens should be very proud of their public safety folks, police, fire, sheriff's, water, parks...every agency was fully engaged. Just as an example, Cobb 911 averages about 1,200 calls in a normal shift. On Monday, they took more than 3, 600 calls," Olens said.

Cobb Civic Center, in Marietta, housed more than 200 people on Monday night, many of whom had been bused there from Austell and Powder Springs. The Red Cross is coordinating the shelter, and can be contacted at 404-876-3302.

Grace Bland, of Powder Springs, was among those seeking shelter, with her mother.

"I would like for Obama to help us out here. I done been through Katrina, Ike and now this here. Please help us," she said.

Powder Springs Mayor Pat Vaughn said the damage was just devastating.

"There are no injuries or missing people that we know about, thank heavens," Vaughn said. "But this is more damage than we saw in 2005. The Autumn Trace subdivision was hit particularly hard. Senator Johnny Isakson's office called Monday to offer help, as did State Rep. Don Wix and State Sen. Steve Thompson, and I truly appreciate that. As soon as we know the extent of the damage, we will be asking for help."

"For now, we are asking citizens to be patient. We are working on things as fast as we can, and we will do everything possible to help citizens. Our hearts go out to our citizens hurt by these floods, and we are going to be there to help them," Vaughn said.

In north Cobb, closer to Lakes Acworth and Allatoona, Mayor Tommy Allegood acknowledged his area's good fortune.

"Our lakes and Army Corps property has a lot of stream buffers. There aren't a lot of houses that would be directly hit and I'm not aware of a lot of damage," he said.

But a portion of Cobb Parkway in Acworth was washed out, blocking access to the Lowe's home-improvement store.

"We're in clean-up mode, with the exception of northbound 41 near the Lowe's," Allegood said.

Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews said his city's major issue the day after was onlookers.

"If there's an area roped off, it means don't go there," he said. "We may have to start writing tickets to keep people away."

The large Legacy Park development off Jiles Road in Kennesaw was sorely hurting when a creek that runs through the development washed out the main, circular road inside the neighborhood in two places.

East Cobb Park, off Roswell Road, is closed until further notice. And David London, president of the Friends of East Cobb Park, is angry.

About 6 p.m. Monday, he got a call that people were inside the park, wading and playing in the water, even though the park had been closed since noon.

"So I rode over there and I saw all those things. I would guess maybe 100 people were in the water. I saw kids riding bikes. Parents letting kids go in the water with no shoes on. The water is full of bacteria. There are sewer lines in that creek area. There was likely to be glass and debris and yet people ... adults, teenagers, children were in the water. It was chaotic," London said.

As he went to ask people to leave, he slipped and broke his kneecap, which will be operated on today, he said.

"I'm just dumbfounded at the sheer irresponsibility for anyone to be in that water under those conditions," London said. "They could have been swept into the creek."

There are at least 11 creeks across the county monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey, which reported that Allatoona, Butler, Noses, Powder Springs and Sweetwater creeks were all in flood damage stages on Monday.