Evacuation warning in East TN was too late for many to escape even with advance notice of severe flooding, WSMV4 Investigates finds
WSMV4 Investigates reviewed National Weather Service data to determine when the first warning took place. Timeline shows how quickly hospital workers got trapped on roof in East TN
UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. (WSMV) - In videos that have now become synonymous with the East Tennessee flooding, dozens of workers of Unicoi County Hospital are seen standing on the roof surrounded by rushing floodwaters.
WSMV4 Chief Investigator Jeremy Finley found that there was plenty of advance notice that severe flooding could happen. However, WSMV4 Investigates analysis shows that when the actual warning from the National Weather Service went out for people to evacuate, it was simply too late for many to escape.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Director Patrick Sheehan was asked why so many people felt they were caught off guard and became trapped by the floodwaters.
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“Those catastrophic flood warnings were issued in North Carolina primarily,” Sheehan said. “I think we’ll have time after the fact to look at where we could have improved communication and what kinds of things we could have done to improve warning and alerting.”
WSMV4 Investigates reviewed National Weather Service warning data to determine how soon people were told to evacuate.
On Sept 27, at 9:14, the NWS issued a flood warning, stating that people should move to higher ground.
According to tweets from Ballad Health, the owner of Unicoi County Hospital, the hospital was told by the county emergency management agency to evacuate at 9:38.
Those tweets go on to read that as soon as 11 patients were readied to be evacuated, ambulances could not safely approach the hospital because of floodwaters.
The video also shows an ambulance almost submerged in the water.
At 10:20, TEMA attempted to deploy boats but the water became impassable.
At 12:27, the hospital reports that 54 employees were on the roof, with seven more lying in rescue boats.
Helicopters then arrived to rescue the trapped people.
Sheehan also said that TEMA began warning people about the pending rain and flooding on Thursday, the same day they issued a state of emergency for East Tennessee.
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