Pickett County emergency crews rescued seven people and three dogs from rising floodwaters as heavy weekend rains damaged bridges and forced several road closures across the county.
EMS and EMA Director Garry Garrett said the most significant impacts occurred near Highway 127, Moodyville, and Caney Creek. Garrett said the flooding was localized to low-lying areas and homes situated along the river as water rushed out of the surrounding hills.
“We had mutual aid with Putnam County Rescue Squad swift water team to come up,” Garrett said. “We had a place down here on the river that we didn’t know how high the water was going to get and it was up and we couldn’t safely get in and out with any kind of vehicles.”
Garrett said six roads were initially closed before the river began receding Sunday evening, leaving four roads closed as of Monday. Garrett said the damage included a washed-out culvert and two bridges that were compromised by debris and water.
“What happened to us on our river was we just had a lot of riff raff and trees and limbs and all get into the bridges and that just made a big dam there at every bridge that was the two bridges that got flooded it just made big dams and the water had to go somewhere so it come over and went over the bridges,” Garrett said. “So just be careful. Any big major rain event just be careful know that that can happen.”
Garrett said current damage assessments indicate that at least three houses were impacted by rising water. Garrett said no other public infrastructure sustained major damage beyond the affected bridges and washed-out road sections.
“Just, you know, kind of figure out kind of watch the barriers, you know we still got barriers up we still got roads closed,” Garrett said. “Don’t go around them looking to see what’s going on because it may be that the road’s washed out under there, you know, the culvert’s washed out or something there’s a reason that we’ve got the barriers up to keep people out. So don’t go around the barriers.”
Garrett said the county is coordinating with the National Weather Service to establish an early notification system for future heavy rain events. Garrett said officials now have a better understanding of how specific river levels correlate to local damage.
“Whenever the water hits a certain level they’ll start telling us hey you might want to start watching,” Garrett said. “You know now since we know how high the river got and what damage it done at this we’ll be able to tell we’ll be able to look forward and they can tell us hey you need to start doing this and this at these different places.”
