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BY NIC MILLER
STAR STAFF
nic.miller@elizabethton.com

Late last week, areas of Carter County were ravaged by heavy rainfall that led to high water levels and flooding in some communities due to Tropical Storm Fred making its way inland earlier in the week.

These high water levels were not only damaging to citizens’ property, but to many different areas of roads in Stoney Creek, leading to an urgent response by the Carter County Highway Department and Carter County Emergency Management Agency.

Crews began working on clearing debris and removing water from roadways early Friday morning, but there is still much work to be done before things in the area return to their normal state.

It is a process that will take several weeks for the Carter County Highway Department, and Superintendent Roger Colbaugh spoke on just how extensive the damage to the roadways were.

“Peters Hollow Road and Liberty Hollow Road were the two areas that we noticed were hit the hardest on Friday. There was tons of debris on those roadways as well as high water levels and even parts of the road that had been washed away.”

Colbaugh explained that his crews were hard at work, and will continue to be until things are restored to their previous state, saying, “One major thing we are trying to restore as quick as possible is on the upper end of Peters Hollow, where an area of the road is actually blocked off due to it being washed away.

“We are going to be putting in shot rock and rip rock from the Watauga Quarry to rebuild these washed out areas like the ones on Peters Hollow and Liberty Hollow. Hopefully by the end of next week we can reopen that part of Peters Hollow Road.”

The Highway Department has also ordered new pipes for under the roadway that were damaged during the end of last week, as Colbaugh explained that those previously installed have become rusted and filled with debris.

Colbaugh stated that while they hope to have all of the major washed out areas of the roadway repaired by the end of next week, fixing everything that was damaged by the flooding will take at least several more weeks to finish up.