MSN, by Brady Dennis and Scott Dance: Deadly flash floods inundated the Chattanooga region Tuesday night, and more heavy rain was falling Wednesday, threatening to produce more dangerous conditions across Tennessee and other parts of the southern Appalachian region.
“Tropical heavy downpours” dropping rain at rates of as much as 2 inches per hour Wednesday morning prompted the National Weather Service to issue flash flood warnings west of Chattanooga along the Tennessee-Alabama border. Copious amounts of moisture that have returned to the eastern United States meanwhile threatened to produce heavy rainfall across a wide swath of the eastern half of the country.
In Tennessee, Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management said Wednesday morning that at least three people had died amid the severe weather that struck the Chattanooga area the previous night. A tree killed two adults and a child when it fell on a car in East Ridge, southeast of Chattanooga. Authorities said they were still searching for a man who disappeared after passing through floodwaters on foot in Chattanooga.
“I’ve seen flooding throughout my career all over the county,” Sheriff Austin Garrett said Tuesday evening at the county’s emergency operations center. “It’s typically concentrated in one area. This is extremely widespread. It made it difficult for us to even get here ourselves to try to help other people.”
The Weather Service warned of a risk of excessive rainfall Wednesday across parts of seven states in the southern Appalachians, including along the North Carolina/Tennessee border where Hurricane Helene dumped devastating amounts of rain last September. The risk of heavy rain and flooding was forecast to be Level 2 out of 4 in those areas through Wednesday night, the Weather Service said.
An intense but isolated storm system prompted a flash flood warning in south central North Carolina Wednesday morning, while weather forecasting models suggested flooding potential later in the day in parts of northern Maryland, eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Around Chattanooga, more than 6 inches of rain fell Tuesday, making it the second-wettest single day on record at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport, the Weather Service said. The surge of water flooded roads, including Interstate 24, and forced multiple rescues of stranded motorists.
Darleen Wilson, 61, has lived for four decades on Maxwell Road in East Ridge. But never has she seen flooding like what arrived on Tuesday night.
Multiple homes flooded, and several neighborhoods were evacuated by rescue crews amid the high water.
“The rain, it was so fast, so much,” Wilson recalled. “It came up within probably 30 minutes.”
While her home sits on higher ground, she said, one of the victims was her grown son who lives just across the street. About a foot of water got into his house, she said, and he waded through the waste-high water to the safety of his parents’ home.
“He’s pretty stressed … It’s a feeling you cannot describe or understand until you watch it happened,” Wilson said. “All we could do was stand there on our front porch and watch water go in his house. It was a pretty helpless feeling.”
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly warned residents that potentially more devastating weather lay ahead.
“Emergency management experts are telling us to brace for more high water and dangerous conditions today as more rain falls,” Kelly posted on social media. “For the sake of our first responders, I’m asking everyone to use caution when getting around today and no matter what do NOT drive through flooded streets.”
Meanwhile, Wilson said the water had largely receded in her neighborhood by Wednesday morning. Despite the damage and loss on her street, she was feeling grateful.
“Everybody’s safe,” she said. “That’s the important thing.”
Prophetic Link:
“The restraining Spirit of God is even now being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they shall not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there shall be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, page 408.
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