Chattanooga Fire summarizes weeks of assisting in hardest hit areas following Hurricane Helene

The spirit of the Volunteer State continues to shine in the midst of the devastation left by Hurricane Helene. Members of the Chattanooga Fire Department are back at home, but they did great work assisting our neighbors in Northeast Tennessee, including the heavily hit areas of Newport, Unicoi County and Erwin. Over the past few weeks, the CFD has sent search and rescue teams, hazmat personnel and incident management team members to provide manpower and resources. Operations Chief Rick Boatwright helped local leaders manage the overall response in Erwin and Unicoi County. 

From the initial rescue mode, to coordinating search teams and mobilizing resources to affected areas, he was part of the early stages of the recovery process with the State Incident Management Team. The Chattanooga/Hamilton County Hazmat Team assisted with hazardous materials clean up, working to contain hazardous materials (oil, gas) leaking from cars, trucks and tractor trailers submerged in the dirt and silt. Chattanooga firefighters also teamed up with other agencies to form teams that combed through debris searching for victims. Our prayers remain with the impacted communities. There’s a long road ahead for them, but we know they will continue picking up with the pieces with fellow Tennesseans at their side. Chief Boatwright issued the following statement following his two-week deployment:

“It’s hard to find words that would adequately summarize the magnitude of what went on in Unicoi County and Erwin, Tennessee due to the recent floods. The amount of devastation and impact to the community is really shocking to see in person. Pictures do not truly show the amount of destruction to the area. But to watch this community pull together to get through this disaster was remarkable. I got to witness agencies and volunteers from all over the state of Tennessee come together to support this community and try to help them start to recover from the impact of the floods. When you talk about Tennessee being the Volunteer State, it was on full display these past weeks and is still ongoing. I was honored to be able to work alongside some of the finest individuals from across the state representing TEMA’s Incident Management Teams. 

Also, the local officials were amazing in their response to this disaster and the resilience of the community coming in to support them was no short of a blessing. I'm very proud of everyone that responded, volunteered, and just prayed with first responders and the community. I witnessed individuals work countless hours at their own risk to help find missing individuals and to try to bring some closure to families, friends and the community as a whole. As I said, I'm very, very proud of all the responders, including members of my home agency the Chattanooga Fire Department. Everyone spent days trying to assist, whether in search and rescue, dealing with hazardous materials, swift water, delivering food and supplies, setting up communications, doing welfare checks and providing medical aid and mental health support. All of the support services for the first responders and community was nothing short of amazing. To the local officials in Unicoi and Erwin: you all made us feel like a part of your community and we truly appreciate you all for that. Most of us were complete strangers the day before the flood and now we are family. We will be here to support you throughout this recovery and hope that you'll find peace in the coming days and months.”