Concerns of high water shifted south Wednesday afternoon as the Chattahoochee River at West Point was put under a flood warning until Saturday.

The river level at West Point was 17.92 feet this morning, West Point officials said.

Flood stage at West Point is 17 feet, and the river is expected to continue rising to near 18 feet before falling below flood stage Saturday.

The flood warning comes after the Army Corps of Engineers bumped releases from West Point Dam up to 50,000 cubic feet per second, the maximum that can be released without flooding structures in West Point. The lake itself was at 638.95 feet above mean sea level this morning; maximum pool is 641.

“The river gauges to the north have plateaued, but they’re not dropping, they’re just sitting there,” said corps spokesman David Barr. “There’s just a lot of water funneling into the lake.”

Gates at the dam likely will remain open, releasing water through the weekend.

West Point City Manager Ed Moon said this morning the corps potentially could bump releases up to 52,000 cfs around noon today.

“We are not expecting any negative impact from this increase on traffic, city services or private property,” Moon said. “We will continue to monitor the level at the transformer here at City Hall, which is our highest threat at this point.”

Parts of West Point were flooded in 2003, when more than 9 inches of rain fell overnight directly onto the West Point Lake basin. Corps officials were forced to open the gates with little warning to those downstream.

West Point Police Chief David Kerr said Wednesday the city is much better prepared now than it was six years ago and communication with the corps has improved. The corps has put more gauges along the Chattahoochee River so its predictions have im-proved.

“We have something we didn’t have in 2003, which is our command trailer,” Kerr said.

The only structure in West Point that could be affected by the current predictions is the electric transformer at City Hall, which would knock out power to the police station and city offices. In 2003, West Point scrambled to evacuate; city offices moved to the Capitol City Bank building, and police and fire crews scattered.

Should the transformer flood this time, there’s a plan in place to move city operations to the tech center on O.G. Skinner Drive. Police and emergency operations can operate out of the city’s command trailer.

There still were flooding concerns to the north of Troup County on Wednesday afternoon. About 3 p.m., the state Department of Transportation closed the old U.S. 27 bridge that runs through the heart of Franklin because of debris on the bridge.

The DOT had been monitoring debris backing up on the north side of the bridge for several days.

“They had been watching it all day (Tuesday) and made the decision to go ahead and close it,” DOT spokeswoman Kimberly Larson said. “The river apparently got high enough to push debris onto the road.”

Traffic was being diverted onto the new bypass.

Another bridge on Ga. 34 over Lumpkin Creek about 14 miles east of Franklin was closed Wednesday because of rising floodwaters that reached the bottom beams of the bridge, Larson said. It will remain closed until the water recedes and divers can check the bridge footings.

Local volunteers from the Troup County-Valley Area chapter of the American Red Cross also have been helping flood victims to the north. Executive director Connie Hensler said she and others had been in Paulding County but were “working their way south,” and expected to stop in Franklin to see if their services are needed in Heard County.

A few houses in the county, including some on Nutt Road and Bob Brewster Road, were flooded Tuesday afternoon.

Senior writer Joel Martin contributed to this story.

Jennifer Shrader can be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.