News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Severe thunderstorms led to flash flooding and wind damage Tuesday afternoon across the Upper Cumberland.
Putnam EMA Director Brandon Smith said they saw a lot of flash flooding throughout the county between 4:00pm and 5:00pm, mostly inside of Cookeville. Smith said the Cookeville Fire Department had multiple teams in the Willow Avenue area working to perform swift water rescues where drivers tried to go through flooded roads.
“We had, I’m going to guess we had at least eight to ten of those occurring at one time in different areas of the city, but primarily in areas that are more prone to flooding,” Smith said. “And folks just drove out into them and got stranded.”
Jackson EMA PIO Derek Woolbright said they have crews working with the highway department to clear fallen trees from roadways, but they did not have any other issues.
“We’ve had quite a few trees down in roadways but initially we were pretty concerned about the type of flooding we were going to have with the heavy rain we received, but we really had minimal flooding and not really had any roadways impacted by flooding,” Woolbright said.
Woolbright said State Route 262 is the only road completely to be shut down at about the 1100 block. He said Twin Lakes and TDOT are working to remove a tree off of a power line there.
“We don’t have a time frame for how long that’s going to be,” Woolbright said. “But we’ll be sure to get updates out on our social media and let everybody know once that’s back open.”
Woolbright said several county roads have also been reduced to one-lane roads while fallen trees are removed.
White County EMA Director Matt McBride said they have some tree damage affecting roadways in the northeastern section of the county around the White Oak Flatt community, but the majority of the flooded areas across the county have receded.
“We’re just advising people if there is, if they are down to one lane, just make sure that you slow and due diligence to your neighbor and let them pass as you pass,” McBride said.
Smith said they also saw some storm damage in the western part of the county with a tree that fell down on a house on Hopewell Road. Smith said it is still important to pay attention to the weather even after the storm dies down.
“The water has to go somewhere, so if you live near creeks, streams, ponds, areas that are on the downhill slope, you may be receiving water from another area coming your way soon,” Smith said. “So just to stay aware of that as well, that it’s going to take a little while for this water to all find its way out.”
Smith said the situation on Hopewell Road was resolved without much issue and no injuries have been reported in the county at this point.
Smith said he has spoken with the EMA directors in several other counties across the Upper Cumberland and they are seeing similar issues.
“The water from one county is going to flow into another county depending on the way the water basins are set up,” Smith said. “And we’re all pretty familiar with the way that the water flows, so we know when there are issues in one particular part of certain county it may come to our county and cause us issues.”
