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By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

As the remnants of Category 4 Hurricane Helene made its way through East Tennessee Friday, it left power outages and flooding in its wake, to the extent that the Village of Roan Mountain was evacuated and comparisons were being made to the flood of 1998 that left seven people dead.

Carter County Volunteer Fire Department Station in Roan Mountain alerted residents at about 8 a.m. Friday via the emergency siren to evacuate the Village of Roan Mountain.

Carter County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Abby Frye said the Carter County Rescue Squad personnel assisted in the evacuation. “Looks like on Heaton Creek there were several homes that were stranded by water,” Frye said Friday morning as she was reading the call log. “Rescue Squad has advised they’ve gotten everybody out that wanted to evacuate.”

The City of Elizabethton reported on its social media page just before 10 a.m. Friday that Carter County Emergency Management Agency Director Billy Harrell was in Roan Mountain where he compared the flooding to that of 1998. The city also posted that a power outage on Hatcher Lane – one of many reported throughout the county – had taken out the Elizabethton Electric System’s phone lines. 

Social media posts on pages related to Roan Mountain showed floodwaters rushing behind the Roan Mountain Post Office and encroaching upon businesses.

At 11:32 a.m. Friday, the National Weather Service issued a flood warning for Doe River at Elizabethton until 8:50 p.m. At 11:15 a.m., the Doe River was at 7.6 feet, while the river is expected to rise above flood stage late this morning to a crest of 9.5 feet sometime Friday afternoon.

Trees were reported down throughout the county, and a post on Tennessee Department of Transportation’s MyTDOT Facebook Page showed state Route 91 being closed due to falling trees.

By 7 a.m. Friday, Mountain Electric Cooperative was reporting more than 11,000 customers in Tennessee and North Carolina were without power. “The number grows as the wind increases, but we are out working on it. All areas of our system have been affected,” the system reported on its social media page. High winds have downed several trees, broken poles, and taken down lines, the cooperative reported, saying it had “all hands on deck.”

Throughout Friday morning, the National Weather Service issued flood warnings and flash flood watches for Carter, Greene, Johnson, and Unicoi counties until noon today. Among the areas expected to experience flooding are Hampton, Roan Mountain State Park, the Village of Roan Mountain, Milligan College, Shady Valley, Johnson City, Erwin, Mountain City, Banner Hill, Unicoi, Doeville, Neva, Trade, Rocky Fork, Laurel Bloomery and Cedar Creek.

Carter County Emergency Management Agency opened Cloudland High School and Hampton High School to evacuees. Carter County 911 posted on its social media page that other shelters included Hampton Elementary, Unaka High, and Happy Valley High schools, along with any fire station.

On Thursday, the American Red Cross opened a relief station at First Christian Church, Mountain City, for Johnson and Carter County residents and will provide food as needed.

Carter County Schools and Elizabethton City Schools were closed Friday.

In January 1998, a powerful winter storm brought widespread flooding along the upper Doe River, killing seven people. The flood impacted Roan Mountain, Hampton, and Valley Forge, demolishing more than 200 mobile homes and 15 houses, while damaging 193 other houses or structures, and six businesses. According to the National Weather Service, a preliminary estimate of the loss was put at $20 million.

Six of the seven deaths were associated with vehicles attempting to make water crossings, the NWS said, reiterating the danger of driving across high water. The last fatality reported was an emergency rescue member whose boat capsized during a rescue attempt.

The NWS urges motorists, “Turn around, don’t drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.”