Heavy rains cause road closures, school closings and delays throughout the area

Minor flooding in Hamilton County.
Minor flooding in Hamilton County.
photo APL Services crews regroup at Stuart Heights Baptist Church after repairing downed lines on Hixson Pike.

UPDATE: Parts of Riverpark are temporarily closed due to rainfall.

Areas closed:

Entire trail behind Chattanooga State.

All fishing piers.

Main boat ramp and trail near the boat ramp.

Access to South Chickamauga Creek from Lost Mound is flooded beneath the Amnicola Highway Bridge and the trail is closed in that area.

From the rowing center (Citgo Creek Bridge) to Manker Patten area.

Other sections have minor impacts with further closures possible depending on the water levels.

ORIGINAL STORY: Heavy rains over many hours left waterlogged roads, uprooted trees and downed power lines in the Chattanooga area Sunday.

The National Weather Service said 3 to 5 inches of rain had fallen during the day, with another 2 or 3 inches possible in parts of North Georgia, East Tennessee and North Carolina. Flash flood warnings remain in effect through this morning for much of Southeast Tennessee.

Hixson Pike had it tough, experiencing a least two closures in a nine-hour period.

At 9:22 p.m., the Tennessee Department of Transportation reported it had closed the road near Armstrong Road because of a slide.

"The slope above the roadway is moving, and several trees have fallen across the road," TDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn said in an email. "Due to darkness it is impossible to see exactly what the slope is doing. As a safety precaution TDOT Maintenance has closed the affected area and will return at daylight to assess the situation."

The agency has set up message warning boards to alert motorists of the closure, she said.

Around noon, Chattanooga police blocked Hixson Pike near Haywood Avenue for five hours so crews could remove a fallen tree and replace downed wires in the vicinity of Braly Place.

The "wires down" calls continued to trickle in throughout the day, with Cooper Road, Mountain Creek Road, Providence Road and Sawyer Road taking their knocks as well. Occasionally, 911 radio chatter reported live power lines sparking away in the branches above.

Several hundred EPB customers lost power during the day.

"Due to heavy rain that's causing trees to fall, there are about 900 customers being restored as crews work to repair the damage," EPB spokesman John Pless said in a text message Sunday evening. "Mostly north end of Hamilton County."

A view of the EPB online outage map showed clusters of red dots, each indicating minimal outages, in the Sale Creek area. Soddy-Daisy and Red Bank lost power in a number of spots as well.

Hamilton County School is on a two-hour delay today because of power outages and closed roads. Rhea County Schools are closed today.

At 4:45 p.m., the TDOT's SmartWay page showed several flood-related incidents, including a blocked off-ramp at the Tiftonia exit on Interstate 24. Flooding problems are expected to be over by 10 a.m. for the exit, which leads to the Tiftonia-Lookout Mountain area.

The TDOT page also noted incidents at the Graysville Post Office and Old Dixie Highway in Rhea County and River Hill Drive in Meigs County. Dispatchers in Rhea and Meigs could not confirm the TDOT reports.

State Route 319 (Hixson Pike) near Armstrong Road is closed in Soddy Daisy

A flood warning is in effect until 2 p.m. for areas in Hamilton County, Bledsoe County, Sequatchie County, Catoosa County and Marion County.

Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @pleach_tfp.

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