Hurricane Helene rips through Mountain City

MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Heavy rainfall started in Mountain City on Thursday night, but that was just the calm before the storm. Hurricane Helene rolled through Mountain City around 9 a.m., causing heavy rain and strong winds.

Jason Blevins, Director of Emergency Management for Johnson County, said the agency started preparing for the hurricane’s impacts on Thursday night.

“Someone got here about midnight because the first reports were that it was going to hit right after midnight, so we got here early and then, of course, it slowed down once it hit land,” said Blevins. “We’re just now kind of getting here, so some of us have been here since midnight. We’ve got other ones coming in here shortly.”

After 9 a.m. the remnants of the hurricane hit, causing many roads and bridges to flood. Strong winds knocked down trees and power lines countywide.

“We have power outages over a lot of the county. I don’t know for sure what that issue was or not,” said Blevins. “I think they’ve got that one remedied, but there’s a lot of power lines going down with the trees fallen.”

Due to the heavy flooding, some homes had to be evacuated. Hermit Shoals Apartment had to evacuate every resident.

A resident at Hermit Shoals apartment said he did not expect to have to leave his home.

“Well, they banged on my door really loud, and by the time I got to the door, I couldn’t grab ahold of my dog, and she ran out,” he said. “Then I opened the door, water just poured into my apartment.”

Thursday morning, the Red Cross opened a shelter at First Christian Church, and that night three to five people came in. Theresa Nelson, a volunteer at the shelter said they expected more to show up throughout the day on Friday.

“Lots of times, people might just come in until they find a place to go,” said Nelson. “We have capacity for probably 20 to 30. We’ll probably start setting up for a few more because this will probably bring more people in.”

As the day went on and the storm progressed, more people came to seek shelter at the church. Power outages began Friday morning but increased countywide.

“The winds are picking up a lot stronger winds today so far this morning,” said Blevins. “There’s a lot of power lines going down with the trees fallen.”

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