Smoother weather ahead for Chattanooga

Storm clouds move into Chattanooga, Tenn., over Lookout Mountain Friday, June 23, 2017. The storms stretching for hundreds of miles are expected to push river levels higher in coming days as the remnants of a tropical storm cross Tennessee and Kentucky into West Virginia.
Storm clouds move into Chattanooga, Tenn., over Lookout Mountain Friday, June 23, 2017. The storms stretching for hundreds of miles are expected to push river levels higher in coming days as the remnants of a tropical storm cross Tennessee and Kentucky into West Virginia.
photo Michael Smith, a lineman with EPB, works to restore power to houses Friday, June 23, 2017, in on Raulston Street in Chattanooga, Tenn. A pole with a transformer broke and forced EPB workers to transfer a transformer onto a new pole.

While Tropical Storm Cindy's leftovers knocked out power for thousands in Memphis on Friday, they left East Tennessee relatively unscathed.

Memphis Light Gas and Water said 10,000 were without power yesterday morning, according to Associated Press reports. Cindy's wrath spawned an EF-2 twister outside of Birmingham, Ala. The tornado produced winds up to 120 mph, damaging several businesses and injuring four people on Thursday.

The storms stretching for hundreds of miles are expected to push river levels higher in coming days as the remnants of a tropical storm cross Tennessee and Kentucky into West Virginia. The severe weather, which was blamed for recent coastal flooding in the Deep South, tornadoes and one death, is rumbling closer to the densely populated East Coast.

The storm has been blamed for at least one death: Nolan McCabe, 10, of St. Louis, Mo., who was struck by a log carried on a wave on the Alabama coast.

Closer to home, Cindy's aftermath created sporadic rough weather in East Tennessee Friday evening.

In Hamilton County, passing storms caused mostly minor outages between 5 and 7 p.m., with EPB reporting moderate outages in East Ridge and Hixson.

In Hixson, a downed tree hit a utility pole on Comet Trail, setting both ablaze, according to Hamilton County 911 radio traffic.

"Please report the pole is on fire and catching the tree on fire," a firefighter said to a dispatcher, requesting assistance from EPB.

Only 50 Bradley County residents lost power, according to outage reports by Volunteer Energy Cooperative and Cleveland Utilities. Further north, however, over 700 Roane County VEC customers lost power shortly after 5 p.m., according to the utility's website.

The AP reported heavy rainfall caused scattered street flooding across central and southern Indiana on Friday. Weather service flood warnings covered most of the southern two-thirds of the state, with more than 3 inches of rainfall having accumulated in some places by midday - and minor flooding expected along some Indiana rivers.

Emergency crews helped some people from stranded vehicles in Muncie, Ind., including a nearly submerged SUV at a railroad underpass. Low-lying roads in many areas were covered with water. Early Friday, high winds also peeled off part of the roof from a high school near South Bend, leaving 10 classrooms damaged. No injuries were reported.

The National Weather Service said Friday afternoon that Cindy was winding down and had lost tropical characteristics as heavy rain potential moved east across the Ohio Valley and into Pennsylvania, with severe thunderstorms forming to the south.

The weather service in Morristown, Tenn., offered cautious optimism.

"The threat for area wide flooding has decreased, however localized heavy rain in showers and storms could still lead to flash flooding," the NWS website said.

Meanwhile, a flash flood watch was issued for North Georgia on Friday.

Paul Barys, chief meteorologist for WRCB-TV, called for smoother weather today.

"After the storms end [Friday night], some leftover scattered showers will be possible on Saturday," he posted on the station's website. "They will be over by Saturday night and Sunday looks like we will see clearing skies with very comfortable temperatures."

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