Six months ago this week, historic flooding , the likes of which never witnessed before in this area, a disaster which continues to be cleared and repaired to this day.
Radio Greeneville News brings you some of the stories that ran over the next few days, including some audio from those involved six months ago, September 26-28
WEDNESDAY MORNING SEPTEMBER 25 6:00 AM
A Flood Watch is in effect for this morning beginning at 11 AM through Friday afternoon at 2 for the mountains and until Thursday morning at 11 for the lower elevations
Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall is possible in the entire county. Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks. Stay away or be swept away. River banks and culverts can become unstable and unsafe.
According to the National Weather Service, an area of showers and thunderstorms will develop and move across the region Wednesday and continue through Thursday morning. Torrential rains with flash flooding may occur.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 26 3:15 AM
FLOOD WARNING until 5 AM Friday. Flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations is imminent or occurring. Streams continue to rise due to excess runoff from earlier rainfall. Expect many areas of slow moving or standing water. Numerous roads in affected counties are closed due to flooding. Streams continue to rise due to excess runoff.
FLOOD WARNING for Nolichucky River at Embreeville, TN affecting Greene County from Friday around 9 AM through Saturday at 8 PM. Moderate flooding is in the forecast. The river is expected to rise above flood stage late tomorrow morning to a crest of 15.5 feet early Saturday morning. It will then fall below flood stage early Saturday afternoon. Flood stage is 12.0 feet. This could be the highest the river has been since 2004.
FLOOD WARNING from 9 AM Thursday morning through 3 PM in Greene County. Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected. At 9:11 AM, doppler radar indicated heavy rain. Flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly in the warned area. Flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying
and flood-prone locations is imminent or occurring. Streams continue to rise due to excessive runoff from earlier rainfall.
HIGH WIND WARNING from 8 PM Thursday night to 8 PM Friday evening for Southeast Greene County. Southeast winds 25 to 40 mph with gusts up to 80 mph are expected. Remain in the lower levels of your home during the windstorm, and avoid windows. Watch for falling debris and tree limbs. Use caution if you must drive.
FLOOD WATCH for Northwest Greene County through Friday afternoon at 2 PM. The National Weather Service has extended the general Flood Watch through Friday afternoon. The Watch Area includes most counties in East Tennessee, including Greene County. Excessive runoff and heavy rains may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, and low-lying and flood-prone areas. Periods of torrential rain are expected during this time.
HIGH WIND WARNING for Northwest Greene County from Thursday at 8 PM through Friday evening at 8 PM. Northeast winds of 20-30 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 miles per hour are expected with the remnants of Hurricane Helene as it approaches our area Thursday evening and into Friday. Wind gusts in the higher elevations may be 70 miles per hour or higher. Damaging winds could blow down trees and power lines. Travel could be difficult in high profile vehicles.
FLASH FLOOD WARNING for Greene County until 10:00 PM on Wednesday. Over 5″ inches of rain have fallen and additional rainfall amounts of up to another inch is possible overnight. Flash flooding is ongoing. Many roadways are covered and impassible until the water drains off. DO NOT CROSS WATER COVERED ROADS. Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 26 2:59 PM
The National Weather Service is predicting that the Nolichucky River may crest at 15.5 feet early Saturday. That would put the river just below Moderate Flood Stage and would be the highest the river has been since the rains of hurricanes Frances and Ivan impacted our area in 2004.
The river had reached just over 9′ at the official measuring station in Unicoi County on Thursday. The river had risen because of the heavy rains from a stalled cold front that dropped over 6″ of rain in parts of the drainage area.
Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall in the Florida panhandle later Thursday and bring torrential rains to the area overnight and into Friday. Some parts of western North Carolina could get 8-12″ of rain, all of which drains into the Nolichucky. Those rains, coupled with the existing runoff, could put the river at it sixth highest stage since records have been kept back to the early 1900s.
The highest the river has been recorded was the floods of 1901 when the river reached 24′. In 1977, the river peaked at 21.52′, which was the year many of the bridges across the river were washed away.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 26 4:09 PM
Douglas Lake could rise by 20′ in just around 48 hours as the Tennessee Valley Authority mitigates river flows across the state in anticipation of heavy rains from Hurricane Helene.
TVA typically draws down their lakes and reservoirs after the Labor Day holiday. Douglas Lake catches the waters from the Nolichucky, French Broad, and Pigeon Rivers. All of those are expected to see some of their highest levels in several decades.
As the rains from Helene are expected to fall all across Tennessee, TVA will begin holding back water throughout their system to avoid flooding.
The French Broad is expected to crest at 19′, which would be its second highest level. The Nolichuckey will be it’s fifth highest, and the Pigeon River is expected to crest at its third highest level since 1900.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27 6:30 PM
The Highway 107 (Kinser Bridge) collapses
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27 11:00 PM
The rains from Hurricane Helene turned the Nolichucky Dam into a bigger water fall that the iconic Niagara Falls.
The Nolichucky Dam peak water elevation hit 1266.0’, which is 9.5 feet over the record elevation of 1256.5’ set on November 6, 1977. The 1.3 million gallons per second flow rate at 11 p.m. on September 27, more than doubles the flow rate of 613,000 gallons per second from the previous regulated release in 1977.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27 11:30 PM
On September 27 at about 11:30 p.m. ET, out of an abundance of caution, TVA issued a Condition Red alert, which meant that a breach of the Nolachucky Dam was imminent. The alert was issued due to a lack of visibility at the dam and high water levels at the dam that were rising at that time about 2 feet per hour.
Once water levels began to reduce and daylight came, the warning was lifted.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 28 10:10 PM
Due to water supply issues in the city of Greeneville and at the direction of the local emergency management agency, Greeneville Community Hospital is in the process of evacuating current inpatients. Ballad Health team members are working with local emergency medical services to transfer patients to other facilities within the health system—families of affected patients are being updated.
The hospital is suspending all operations except its emergency room, which will remain open for local emergent and obstetric (OB) patients.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 29 4:12 PM
Will Reid, deputy commissioner and chief engineer of TDOT, said the peak daily water flow of Niagara Falls is around 700,000 gallons per second. The flow rate over the Nolichucky Dam was estimated at 1.3 million gallons per second. The Nolichucky Dam is around 482′ wide. Niagara Falls is 3,640′ wide.
TVA estimates that the river was rising at two feet per hour with over a million gallons pouring over the dam every second.
TUESDAY OCTOBER 1 2:00 PM
A body of a Greene County man missing in the river since Friday has been recovered.
The Greeneville Emergency & Rescue Squad and Greene County Sheriff’s Department were among the agencies involved in the recovery.
The TWRA said that Boone McCrary’s body was found in a creek feeding into the Nolichucky River near Allen’s Bridge around 2PM on Tuesday.
McCrary, his girlfriend Ray Santana, and his dog had launched a boat into the river near Bird’s Bridge just after 7PM Friday. The current of the river was too swift for the motor to overcome and the boat was swept into and underneath the bridge. Santana was rescued from that area, but McCrary was heard calling for help as he was swept by Kinser Park campground just before the dam.
Family and volunteers had searched downstream and located his boat and the body of his dog. McCrary’s body was found about four miles past the Nolichucky Dam, around 8 miles from where he disappeared.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 3 5:02 AM
From 10,000 to less than 50.
That’s the progress Greeneville Energy Authority crews have made in the restoration of power since the winds of Helene blew down trees and the ensuing floods washed away utility poles and lines.
The remaining outages are in 11 groups of people and all but four are located along the river. Some were served by single service poles that brought power across the river, and the largest groups are three homes.
Greeneville Energy Authority has used boats to pull new lines across the river at the Poplar Springs and Bewley’s Bridge to restore power to customers. They have also re-worked lines to feed extra customers for areas they have still not been able to access and repair, like the poles and lines down around Jones Bridge, which remains closed.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 3 5:23 AM
The Greene County Highway Department and Greeneville Public Works have dealt with a disaster that came in two waves. First, high winds that were sustained most of the day Thursday and Friday coupled with flash flooding. Then the sustained damage along the river.
In all, Greene County Road Superintendent Kevin Swatsell estimated that county road crews had to clear over 150 roads in Greene County. The work began with cutting trees that blew down with the strong winds as Helene moved over the area. In many instances those trees were tangled with electrical lines, which in some cases were still live and dangerous.
As the river began to rise, the troubles turned to closing water covered areas and shutting down bridges before they collapsed. Since then, Swatsell said clearing debris, mud, and sand from roadways has been the biggest challenge. Mud left behind is several feet deep in some places, and is still wet and sticky and slick.
Remaining road closures for the county include Brown’s Bridge Road, which sustained a slide along the river side; Little Indian Creek Road which was blocked by a house that had washed into the roadway; Poplar Springs Road where the bridge washed out, the Old Asheville Highway/Bird’s Bridge Road which remains closed pending inspection of that bridge; Pates Hill Road, where a large area of debris and erosion occurred, and a portion of G’Fellers Road that runs along the river.
While the mud covered roadways were cleared of the thick mud, they remain dusty, and any rains we get could cause some very slick areas. The forecast, however, only calls for a 20% chance of rain on Friday and then sunny days for the next week.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 3 5:32 AM
Greene County has been included in the Federal Disaster Declaration by President Biden.
FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance is available to the state of Tennessee to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by Tropical Storm Helene from Sept. 26, 2024 and continuing.
The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Greene, Carter, Cocke, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
Federal funding is also available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work in Greene, Carter, Cocke, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties.
For a period of 45 days of the state’s choosing within the first 120 days from the start of the incident period, assistance for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, under the Public Assistance program is authorized at 100% of the total eligible costs.
Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 5 8:58 AM
Services at Greeneville Community Hospital – with the exception of surgery – were scheduled to resume today.
Ballad Health evacuated the facility on Saturday, Sept. 28, due to water supply issues related to the effects of Hurricane Helene. The hospital remained open for emergency services, but all other inpatient, outpatient and surgical services had been suspended.
Surgeries remain suspended until further notice.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 10 11:25 PM
During a 48 hour period when the Nolichucky River reached record heights, 911 received over 800 emergency calls. They also took over 2,000 alarm and non-emergency calls. 911 radio communications logged over 4,400 transmissions between emergency responders. All five dispatch stations were in use, with each station double staffed.
Dispatcher Rachel Street took a call from a 18-year-old who had gotten stuck inside her car at Old Fort Lane near Earnest Bridge. Street sent out the call for the Greeneville Emergency and Rescue Squad and Tusculum Volunteer Fire Department, then remained on the phone with the girl for another 30 minutes trying to keep her calm while the water kept rising.
Street said the girl told her the water was rising so fast she was afraid to exit the car. The windows also would not go down, and she could not get the door open due to the pressure of the rushing waters.
The girl described to Street how the water was at her knees, then at her waist, then at her shoulders, then at her chin. Volunteers with Tusculum were able to reach the car and rescue the girl with just minutes to spare.
Dispatcher Traci Fanny said that a dispatcher’s last contact with callers is usually when first responders arrive on the scene, and they are often left wondering the outcome. Fanny said that lack of closure is the hardest part of her job.
The daytime shift on Friday included Traci Fanny, Rachel Street, Kalie Douthat, and Lisa Stevenson. The night shift consisted of Kevin Ayers, Susan Hipshire, Alexie Hudson, and Hunter Christy.
Other dispatchers that came in to assist included Jon Waddell, Tina McClain, Sarah Honeycutt, and Sarah Justice. 911 Director Jerry Bird was on site and Carla Combs handled administrative calls.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 10 4:07 PM
Governor Bill Lee said today that the Kinser Bridge on the Erwin Highway has been fast tracked and is targeted to be open by June of 2025. That would be an ten month turn around on a project that is a main connection with the southeastern part of Greene County.
The Governor had visited the area earlier and discussed how Greene County as a whole was pitching in in the recovery effort.
JUNE 2025
Both Kinser Bridge and Easterly Bridge are scheduled to reopen in June, a major achievement in such a short time period.
