CCEMA Releases Report On Wednesday Flooding Event

The Cocke County Emergency Management Agency has released their report about the events that happened Wednesday on Interstate 40 near the North Carolina state line. EMA Director Joe Esway says he received a notification at 3:36pm from Karen Chambers (Chief River Safety Officer) at the Waterville Road “Put In”. She stated that rain had been falling for almost two hours and was beginning to pool up in the parking area where River Safety Officers direct the launching of commercial and private boaters into The Pigeon River.

With runoff from the mountains continuing, Esway called the Cocke County Swift Water Rescue Team to The Emergency Operations Center at 4:34pm to get ready in case needed. Shortly before 5pm, 911 began receiving calls of people and their vehicles being overcome by water on I-40 and a family that was trapped in their home on Green Corner Road. Esway says that half of the county’s first responders headed to I-40 and the others headed to Green Corner Road, their response times were less than 10 minutes. TDOT began removing concrete barriers so that emergency vehicles could reach those that were trapped on the interstate. The Swift Water Rescue Teams from both Cocke County and Newport were called into action. They used a rescue raft and cleared 4 passenger vehicles and a tractor trailer that were covered by flood waters on the interstate.

The Cocke County and Newport SWAT teams were called in to assist other first responders in rescuing the individuals trapped in their home on Green Corner Road. Miraculously, no one was killed or hurt in the flooding on Wednesday. Cocke County Mayor Rob Mathis commented that if the original eastbound lanes of I-40 had been open when the flood waters hit, vehicles on the interstate could have been swept off the interstate and into the Pigeon River. With the interstate down to one lane in each direction, the concrete barriers in place along the eastbound lane kept vehicles on the roadway, although some of those concrete barriers were moved by flood waters.