Johnson County road, property recovery in early stages

MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Jeff Wagner stretched his arm out toward an asphalt-strewn section of Roan Creek where U.S. Highway 421 had rolled smoothly through the mountains three weeks earlier.

“I never dreamed it would be as bad as it is,” Johnson County’s Highway Superintendent said as he stood at a spot in “The Gorge” between Mountain City and Trade where a swollen and raging Roan Creek had eaten away huge sections of highway 20 days earlier.

“I’ve seen flash floods all my life but never anything this bad,” Wagner told News Channel 11 Thursday. “There are roads that the road’s not there. The bridge is completely gone. And houses. I mean, a lot of people’s really, really hurting in this county.”

People like Wagner and Johnson County Emergency Management Agency Director Jason Blevins — both Johnson County natives whose own communities suffered storm damage — are seeing the toll up close every day. Wagner is counting the cost of road and bridge damage. Blevins is at the center of a county-state-federal effort to assess damage and begin getting people help.

“I know most of these people and it gets to you,” Wagner, a 66-year-old in his second term as elected highway superintendent. “It really gets to you, seeing what they’ve lost, their homes and everything. It’s been tough.”

Especially near the North Carolina line, unimaginable rainfall totals filled creeks and their small tributaries well beyond capacity and created violent torrents that wreaked havoc on everything in their path. Roads, homes, trees, power lines — all were helpless against the force.

In Johnson County, one person died when their home was swept away, Blevins said. The latest count has more than 60 homes completely destroyed and 40 badly damaged, with an estimated $8 million in property damage. Another 200 people remain without electricity.

Blevins, whose Laurel Bloomery community saw major damage as Laurel Creek easily overflowed its banks, said the devastation in a county of just 18,000 people takes an emotional toll.

“We all care about each other here,” he said. “We always have. It’s a tight-knit community, and it is just tough seeing people hurt, and we’re only limited to so much that we can do. But it’s also been great and heartwarming to see the churches, the community organizations, the thousands upon thousands of people stepping up to help.”

They all wanted to help

Wagner, who isn’t letting a recent foot surgery keep him off his feet, said about 70% of Johnson County’s 378 miles of county road endured some level of damage. “It’s going to take years to get to,” Wagner said.

The daunting task for his 23-person crew was lightened by help from several sources, beginning with the residents themselves.

“Friday after the storm was gone they was in the roads with chainsaws,” Wagner said. “We would have never got to all these people. They cut theirself out.”

Then came more help, this time from fellow highway departments.

“My phone started ringing. Montgomery County, Roane County, Sullivan County.  I don’t know what I’d done without ’em. They wanted to come and help. So many people has helped Johnson County, it’s unbelievable.”

At this point, all of the county-owned roads except one are passable, but they’re not going to be in Wagner’s preferred shape.

“I hope people bear with me,” he said. “We’re gonna have a lot of gravel roads this winter. Not paved roads but gravel roads, and a lot of ‘em’s gonna be rough. But they can get home, and they can get to where they’re going.”

As for state-managed highways — particularly State Route 91 that goes northeast through Blevins’ Laurel Bloomery and on to Damascus, Va., and U.S. 421 that goes southeast through Trade and on to Boone, N.C. — the damage is severe. Both those routes have been closed for nearly three weeks, though Johnson County Mayor Larry Potter said 91 may reopen soon.

The scene on 421 Thursday afternoon bordered on hectic, with large truck after large truck hauling debris one way or road materials the other.

“They’ve really got a problem up through there, but Maymead, you can’t believe how they’re working up through there,” Wagner said, referring to the contractor that has a deal to lead repair of 421.

“And they’re getting along good, but man they’ve got so much to do. It is bad, bad up through there.”

When asked about the potential cost, Wagner didn’t have a good answer yet.

“I can’t give you a money amount right now. It’s probably going to take $10 million to get the county roads back in shape.”

Local funding not enough to get whole job done

Wagner praised his two-woman office staff, saying the amount of paperwork when dealing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is massive and critical for a county that doesn’t have extra money lying around.

“It’s very important,” he said. “Importantest thing we’ve got beside the work itself.”

A collaborative relationship with FEMA and its state counterpart, TEMA, is a must if the county and individuals within it are going to come close to being made whole after the devastation, Blevins said.

“We’re working on that plus transition into the long-term needs, taking care of the public side of things, as trying to get FEMA and all the folks in here that can help the residents in the long term get back on their feet,” he said.

He knows it may not seem fast enough for people like Lisa Potter. She and her husband Steve saw their three-bedroom house along Roan Creek, which Steve Potter built in 1995, destroyed. Lisa Potter said they’re still waiting for help.

With EMA directors like him being local, Blevins said most — including himself — wouldn’t hesitate to speak up if aid was being diverted or FEMA and TEMA were otherwise hurting, not helping people.

“Everybody’s working together. But the thing everybody needs to remember is this is a big disaster spread far and wide.”

That leaves all states and counties vying for limited resources at a time of nearly unlimited need, he said.

“That’s why it may appear things are moving slow, but they are moving and we got people helping us. We’d love to have more help, and we keep requesting, but the people can only do so much.”

He expects that to change, and he said people resisting cooperation with federal teams—or worse, impeding them—only hurt their community.

“It just makes everybody’s job more difficult, kind of trying to clear the air, so to speak, and makes it tough,” Blevins said.

“That’s key to get our damage assessments in,” Blevins said of sharing information with TEMA and FEMA.

“That pretty much shows how much assistance we need, how many folks can come in here to help. Once we start showing bigger numbers, they’re like, ‘Oh, we need more people to come in here.’ The FEMA folks get more boots on the ground here so they can get more people out there, get people signed up, get more assistance quicker.”

Whatever happens at that level, Blevins said he knows Johnson Countians themselves will stay resilient and recover over time.

“People say we’re divided. No, we’re not divided. People come together, we’re getting the job done and it’s just going to take time to heal and get things back where they need to be.”

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