‘This is catastrophic:’ Newport left underwater following extreme flooding

NEWPORT, Tenn. (WATE) — The City of Newport remains underwater after the Pigeon River flooded Friday.

Alarms from businesses were still ringing Friday night as downtown was inundated with water. Residents who live in the area are stunned by the devastation.

“I have never seen it like this. Even my mother and granny, people who are 60, 70 years old have never seen it,” Newport resident Shannon Stewart said. “I spoke to many people, I was at Rankn Bridge earlier, there were at least 15 propane tanks, roofs there was a whole portable building that you’d have outside. It was coming down the river.”

As the flood waters quickly rose in downtown, a decision needed to be made about evacuations.

“Downtown Newport is completely covered with water,” Cocke County Sheriff C.J. Ball said. “We have done a complete evacuation of the Cocke County Jail Annex, the old jail and the courthouse. Everything Downtown was evacuated pretty quick. We were able to get all the inmates transfered to Sevier County and the Jefferson County facility.”

Shannon Stewart said this type of devastation could take years to rebuild from.

“You don’t expect it to happen in this small town,” he said. “I mean it’s Newport, we’ve had it flood but it’s never been this bad. This is catastrophic. For Newport, this is going to them back quiet a bit.”

Agencies from multiple counties have made their way to the Newport area to help in any way they can. The assistance is something Sheriff Ball said he is grateful to see.

“We cannot thank them enough. The resources coming in, Unicoi County is getting hit pretty hard too,” Sheriff Ball said. “We’ve got all East Tennessee law enforcement, all the way from Nashville reaching out to us, Hamilton County and Chattanooga they’ve reached out. Mostly, it’s just unbelievable the amount of support we have gotten but the big thing is we’ve got people out there that need to be rescued and we are trying to get to them.”

The area in Newport and across Cocke County is a scene of devastation from the floods. Sheriff Ball told 6 News as of 7:00 p.m., roughly 50 rescue attempts have been made. He added that there have been a total of nine vehicles have been lost in the flood: seven Cocke County Sheriff’s cruisers, one fire truck and one rescue squad truck.

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