How a newly-formed dive team is helping restore power in Cocke County

COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. ( WATE ) — Many Newport residents are still without power after flooding from Hurricane Helene devastated the area . Newport Utilities (NUB) crews are working to rebuild foundations for power poles.

“These are not poles that were broken by high wind or a motor vehicle. NU is physically building new foundations to set these poles because everything below them is in another county, washed away by flood waters,” Cocke Co. EMA Director Joe Esway shared in a post on Facebook .

Powerlines also have to be transported across waterways, so Cocke County’s Swift Water Rescue Team and its Delta Dive Team stepped in to help.

“The Swift Water Rescue team assisted NUB, our utilities board, in being able to cross a line at the Pigeon River and basically slingshot a line over to the other side of the river,” Randy Forbes, Delta Dive Team leader, said. “Then that enabled the electric company to be able to use that line to get the electric line over the Pigeon River and into that area of need.”

The Delta Dive Team is an expansion of the Swift Water Rescue Team. It was established in August.

“I have never seen anything like this in my life. I lived in Florida for part of my life and went through some hurricanes. This tops any of that by far,” Forbes said.

In addition to helping with the power, the team has rescued countless people. They went up in Knox County Sheriff’s Office helicopters and rescued people off rooftops and out of flooded areas. Now, they’re looking at what comes next in the recovery efforts.

“I think the next phases are going to be possible recovery missions as well as the damage. Just looking at seeing what kind of damage control we can do there,” Forbes said. “Honestly, the way that we’ve been going is, it’s a day-by-day process. We wait for our director to give us a mission or give us a heads-up on where we’re going to go. We simply deploy, take care of that mission and wait for the next.”

Esway also shared that power outages may fluctuate as they work to get it restored. This is because power may need to be temporarily shut off to reset poles and reconnect lines.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.