Over 6 Inches Of Rain Fell In Chattanooga

As severe weather in Tennessee continued on Wednesday, August 13, a family of three died in East Ridge — a suburb of Chattanooga — when a tree fell on their car.

Their identities have not yet been released by authorities, but AP News reported that they died just after midnight.

On the Chattanooga Fire Department’s Facebook page, the department wrote, “Saturated ground from storms caused a large tree to fall on a car in the 1100 block of South Moore Road in East Ridge early Wednesday morning, killing two adults and a child.”

By Wednesday afternoon, a fourth individual from a separate incident was reported dead after having been observed vanishing into the waters. This man allegedly crossed over a fire department barricade, and the fire department searched for him for several hours before conditions deteriorated further.

Officials are still working to confirm if the deceased individual they found matches with the individual who was observed crossing the barricade.

The city of Chattanooga saw several roads flood — including Interstate 24 — with Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp declaring a local state of emergency for the duration of the weather event.

According to the National Weather Service Morristown, a total of 6.42 inches of rain fell on Chattanooga on Tuesday, making it the city’s second wettest day on record.

The wettest day was recorded in 2011.

Rescues Conducted By Local First Responders

Several evacuations were conducted by the Chattanooga Fire Department with the Hamilton County Emergency Management Agency and other first responders.

From the Hamilton County Emergency Operations Center, teams were dispatched to respond to the flooding as needed, with Amy Maxwell, public information officer with the Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management saying, “We have a lot of trees down. We have a lot of power lines down. We have a lot of homes that are flooded in the East Ridge area.”

Continuing, she told the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “We continue to get numerous rescue efforts of people driving through flooded streets and obviously getting stuck, so we have to send swift water rescue teams in to rescue them and leave their cars stranded for right now, so we’re not seeing so much of the flash flooding receding yet. So right now we continue to do rescue operations.”

Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett wrote on Facebook of the efforts he saw by all first responders, writing:

“As heavy rains and flash flooding swept across our county yesterday and into the late hours of Tuesday night, I had the privilege of working alongside and observing your sheriff’s deputies, 911 telecommunicators, police officers, emergency management personnel, EMS, firefighters, troopers, hospital staff, and highway department and TDOT personnel. Each of them served tirelessly to protect residents and respond to calls for help.”

Continuing, he wrote, “Public safety is more than a job — it’s a calling.”

One witness to the flash flooding was Paul Broughton, of Cleveland, TN, who told the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

“I mean, it was just a matter of coming out of that gully right there, and then I looked and the whole road was covered. Lord have mercy. Little rain here and a little rain there, and all of a sudden it just started coming down, and it just it was relentless.”

Storms Expected To Continue

On Wednesday and Thursday, rain is expected to continue in the Chattanooga area.

“Scattered showers and storms will return on Thursday afternoon, lowering to isolated coverage for Friday and the rest of the weekend,” the National Weather Service reports. “A drier weather pattern will develop over the weekend.”

Sheriff Garrett wrote on social media on August 13, “While yesterday’s weather event has passed, the forecast for today is calling for additional heavy rain beginning this morning extending into the evening. Please stay tuned to local news outlets and download our Sheriff’s app to keep informed.”

Further, he advised that residents should “always have a safety plan” for their families and to “stay weather aware.”