Cocke County residents going elsewhere to find water amid outage

NEWPORT, Tenn. (WATE) — Several Cocke County residents are without water due to flooding across East Tennessee in the aftermath of Helene .

“You got to go find a distribution center and hope that there is one that is carrying water and there are several around town, so being able to find it and everything,” Fred Cochran-Scott said.

Mark Grigsby lives in Del Rio, however, he’s been staying with Cochran-Scott since Thursday because he feared his house would flood.

“Before it all happened I told Fred I said ‘Can I come down.’ I said because it had flooded before in my house because I live in front of a creek, but nothing like this,” Grigsby said. “I just had a feeling I have to get out of here.”

The pair unloaded the truck with cases of water, those bottles won’t be used for drinking but rather things we take for granted each day.

“We had to go Dandridge to the Food City and buy gallons of water, we bought 12 gallons. So that’s how we’ve been flushing the toilet,” Cochran-Scott said. “This morning I took a sponge bath and shaved for the first time in many days.”

Laundry is another concern with no running water.

“I did see online that we can go to surrounding areas that are letting us wash clothes free which may be an option,” Grigsby said.

There is no exact timeframe for when water will be restored. On Sunday, Newport Utilities declared a state of emergency for all water operations and asked customers to observe critical water conservation protocols . TEMA also shared that there is a boil advisory in place for those who receive water from the Newport Utilities Board .

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