Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Nearly 50 people remain missing in East Tennessee after Hurricane Helene brought in massive flooding. The death toll has risen to eight as of Tuesday night.
According to the recent reports from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, they currently have public leads on 46 individuals who are still missing.
TEMA says this number is not representative of those who are actually missing because they do not have confirmed information on everyone as of yet. As of Tuesday, they have received around 500 calls regarding missing individuals.
The following counties currently have missing individuals:
Carter County – 7 missing
Johnson County – 7 missing
Unicoi County – 7 missing
Washington County – 25 missing
The number of fatalities increased to eight after the body of a 32-year-old man was found in Greenville on Tuesday night. Reports say he went out in a boat on Friday night to try to provide assistance to individuals.
Multiple agencies are working with TEMA to provide support for the area, including the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the National Guard. They are assisting with welfare checks and searches, as well as with delivering needed supplies. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other utility partners are helping to bring in bottled water as they work on ways to restore public water systems.
TEMA Director Patrick Sheehan says that federal help is coming; Governor Bill Lee requested it on Friday afternoon, and President Joe Biden has declared several East Tennessee counties to be disaster areas. He says assistance was not requested earlier because forecasts did not predict such a hard hit for the area.
Sheehan acknowledged people’s desire to help those in need, but asks that people provide assistance through donations at this time instead of showing up on site.
“People just showing up is not helpful,” Sheehan said. “Cash is the best way to help survivors. TEMA isn’t managing these donations and we work with nonprofits. Someone who lost their home receiving a couch today doesn’t do them a whole a lot of good.”
“At this point, people showing up is not helpful unless they’re affiliated with a volunteer organization that is part of this fight to get services restored and life safety measures in place,” he continued. “Once the news cameras go away people are still going to need help, and this type of disaster is a years and decades long recovery.”
The Center Square reported:
Three bridges over the Nolichucky River and two over I-26 in Unicoi County are destroyed, according to the department, which will inspect locally-owned bridges on Thursday.
Crews “have worked tirelessly in the first 100 hours, to assess damage and inspect all state-owned bridges over water, 310 bridges across six counties in East Tennessee,” the transportation department said in an update. “On Monday, crews hauled 58 loads of debris to the landfill from just one area of I-26 in Unicoi County.”
Gov. Bill Lee toured counties affected by the storm on Tuesday, calling the damage “horrific” and “heartbreaking.”
The state is still awaiting a major disaster declaration from President Joe Biden. Lee sent an expedited request on Tuesday evening, he said. The governor declared a statewide emergency on Friday after the storm.
Biden approved a disaster declaration for Appling, Brooks, Coffee, Columbia, Jefferson, Liberty, Lowndes, Pierce, Richmond, Tattnall and Toombs counties in Georgia on Tuesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also announced assistance for Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bulloch, Burke, Candler, Chatham, Clinch, Colquitt, Cook, Echols, Emanuel, Evans, Glascock, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jenkins, Johnson, Lanier, Laurens, Lincoln, McDuffie, Montgomery, Screven, Telfair, Treutlen, Ware, Washington and Wheeler counties.
The Tennessee Lookout reported:
TEMA tallied about 5,000 reports of power outages throughout the state as of 12:30 p.m. Oct. 1. Wastewater treatment plants reported impacts or problems due to flooding in Cocke, Hamblen, Johnson and Unicoi counties.
Seventeen water systems issued boil water advisories after reporting operational issues with drinking water facilities:
- Carter County: Elizabethton Water Department, First Utility District of Carter County, South Elizabethton Utility District
- Cocke County: Newport Utilities Board
- Greene County: Cross Anchor Utility District, Chuckey Utility District, Glen Hills Utility District, Greenville Water and Light Commission, Mosheim Utility District, North Greene Utilities
- Jefferson County: Dandridge Water Department
- Johnson County: Mountain City Water Department
- Sevier County: Webb Creek Utility District
- Sullivan County: Intermont Utility District
- Unicoi County: Erwin Utilities Authority, Unicoi Utility District
- Washington County: Jonesborough Water Department
Multiple other utility districts in affected counties reported issues at drinking water facilities but did not have boil water advisories in effect as of 3 p.m. Oct. 1, according to TEMA.
Tennessee National Guardsmen have delivered more than 4,000 pounds of water to people in affected areas. Tennessee Highway Patrol helped deliver 19 pallets of water in Unicoi County Monday night.
State officials on Tuesday cautioned that some roads and bridges in hard hit counties will face months of closures and require extensive repairs or total rebuilds.
“The storm has caused historic destruction. We anticipated hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and months of closures,” a statement from the Tennessee Department of Transportation said.
A total of five bridges are destroyed across three counties, including three that spanned the Nolichucky River, which stretches from North Carolina to Tennessee and saw record flows beginning Friday that swallowed the bridges in its path.
“There were 1.2 million gallons a second coming through this very place we’re standing,” Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty said during the press conference with the governor held against the backdrop of a collapsed bridge over the Noluchucky River in Unicoi County. Hagerty noted the flow was more powerful than the Niagra Falls, which drops about 700,000 gallons of water per second.
Of 13 Tennessee bridges originally closed, 7 have reopened; of the 47 routes closed, 25 have been repaired and reopened. An additionally 12 locally owned bridges have been either washed out completely or closed temporarily awaiting an assessment, according to TDOT.
2 Responses
You COULD consider just following the science. Climate projections simultaneously warn of higher annual mean surface temperatures, higher rates of intense rainfall and more frequent intense rainfall events. The atmospheric moisture content increases with respect to a change in temperature – essentially, the warmer the atmosphere, the more water is held in the atmosphere, and therefore higher rates of precipitation can be expected.
This is explained by the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship between surface temperature and water vapour. According to the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship, atmospheric water content increases by between 6 and 7% per 1 °C. Therefore, even just an increase of 1.5°C could result in ~9% more water in the atmosphere, which could have a major impact on storm systems and subsequent rainfall.
As long as the powers that be continue to kick the climate can down the road, expect things to get worse.
Typical demonrat. Advance your climate agenda no matter the tragedy. First it was climate cooling then climate warming now just climate change. Pathetic! Look at the real scientific evidence that the left doesn’t want to acknowledge. Not your made for MSM talking [garbage] points. To be honest you are nothing but a leftist troll on a conservative website because I have read your nonsense comments that you leave.
ECCLESIASTES 10:12-14 NIV
12 Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious,
but fools are consumed by their own lips.
13 At the beginning their words are folly;
at the end they are wicked madness—
14 and fools multiply words.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.