Flooding ceases, snow may come next yet again
By Wes Wade | (wes.wade@thedailytimes.com)
Blount County appears to have recovered from widespread flooding experienced across the area Wednesday, with only some residual high water left on certain roadways.
Yet with the National Weather Service (NWS) forecasting the possibility of snow this morning, Blount County Highway Department Superintendent Bill Dunlap said the department is preparing for the possibility of more inclement weather.
“I’ve got trucks in the shop loaded and ready to go just in case,” Dunlap said Thursday night. “If it’s bad tomorrow we’ll have all our drivers in and we’ll go from there tomorrow.”
Some residual water from Wednesday’s flooding still covered part of Springbrook Road in Alcoa near the Brimmer Steel Erectors Inc. building Thursday. In addition, a roughly 10-foot section of Carrs Creek Road in Townsend was shortened to one lane as a result of a tile that washed out from Wednesday’s flooding.
Aside from that, according to both Dunlap and Townsend Volunteer Fire Department Chief Don Stallions, all roads previously closed Wednesday were reopened Thursday.
“Old Walland Highway had debris on it pretty bad, end to end, all the way from Heritage (High School) all the way to Townsend,” Dunlap said. “And we cleaned everything up that came in. So unless we have a slide it’s in good shape.”
There were no power outages reported in either the cities of Alcoa or Maryville Thursday.
Steve Biggar, Alcoa Utility Services supervisor, said 345 customers were affected when an electric line was torn down in the Cold Springs Road area and fuses had to be replaced. Power went of at 3:21 a.m. and was restored at 6:15 a.m.
Electricity was cut off at 3:19 a.m. in the Mentor Road area, affecting 62 customers. A switch was replaced and power was back up at 5:07 a.m.
In the Tipton Shop Road area, 32 customers lost power at 1:23 a.m. when a wire went down. A line fuse had to be reclosed, and electricity was restored at 5:35 a.m.
Thirty-eight customers in the Wildwood Road area were affected when a line fuse was off from 1:15 a.m. to 2:25 a.m.
There were scattered outages in the East Millers Cove, West Millers Cove and Saddle Ridge Road areas.
The NWS issued a winter weather advisory warning of the possibility of snow in Blount and surrounding counties, including Maryville, which began last night and was scheduled to end at 10 a.m. today.
The advisory states that periods of moderate to heavy snowfall will quickly move through the area late Thursday night on into early this morning. One to two inches of accumulation are possible, with higher amounts of accumulation possible in higher elevations.
A cold front quickly moving through the Southern Appalachian region Thursday night was expected to bring scattered snow showers and colder temperatures. The NWS forecasts only a high near 33 today, with a 20 percent chance of snow. Tonight is expected to be partly cloudy with a low near 19 degrees.
Saturday will bring a 40 percent chance of rain and snow with a high near 43 degrees. A chance of rain showers is forecast before 8 p.m. Saturday night, then a chance of snow showers.
The chances of snow continues into Sunday, which brings a 20 percent chance of snow showers before 10 a.m. Yet Sunday is expected to be partly sunny with a high near 45 degrees.
