Unicoi County Sheriff Hensley condemns “sightseers,” non-locals visiting flood-torn areas

UNICOI, Tenn. (WJHL) — Unicoi County Sheriff Mike Hensley told News Channel 11 this week that visitors coming to the flood-torn county to sightsee have complicated recovery efforts and are beginning to endanger workers and themselves.

“I know everybody wants to look and I understand that,” he said. “But we’re doing work. We’re still in the recovery process. We’ve got power lines down, gas lines, fiber optic cable. We got a multitude of utilities working.”

Hensley said he was near Yancey County, North Carolina Tuesday morning, where he had to escort people to the state line who were not from the area and looking around to “see what they could pick up.”

“They had some people up there [Yancey Co.] that wasn’t from there. They [were] not related to anyone over there, more or less just looking around to see what they could pick up, and there was no criminal charges placed, but they did escort them to the state line.”

Sheriff Hensley said he and his deputies are going to speak with people they see out and ask them to state their business to try to control the overwhelming amount of people entering the county for non-essential reasons.

“We’re going to talk to these folks and see if they have relatives here in Unicoi County. If they have no business here, we’re going to escort them on their way. We’re not going to put up with looting and stealing of these flood victims, not for one second.”

Hensley said one reason his office is trying to remove sightseers is because many different types of crews are hard at work restoring utilities and providing emergency services. He said many wires, poles, debris and more potentially dangerous items are still scattered around the flood area.

“If they don’t have no business in these areas, not related, not help and not with any organization, they need to leave. And that’s what I stand on up here.”

Another reason is that it’s causing unnecessary traffic, backing up already-narrowed roadways that are locals’ only option right now.

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