After 10 straight days of precipitation that left the Tennessee River in a raging fury and the Chattanooga region soggy from more than 10 inches of rain, most residents likely are ready for a break.
“Just ‘for the record’ we have received 10.6 inches of rain, which makes it the [third] wettest February on record so far,” WRCB-TV Channel 3 chief meteorologist Paul Barys wrote in his Monday weather blog. “We could easily slip into second place with another [half inch] of rain before the end of the month.”
Only the rooftops of the fishing piers at the Tennessee Riverpark are visible below the Chickamauga Dam at 11 a.m. Monday.Despite the sunny skies, a flood warning remains in effect until noon Tuesday as runoff from the past week’s rains makes its way downhill and downstream, according to the National Weather Service office in Morristown, Tennessee.
Over the last week or so, the damage tally has included homes, a Trenton, Georgia convenience store parking lot, a Signal Mountain Road Subway restaurant and roads throughout the region. The storm system spawned deadly tornadoes in some parts of the South over the weekend and prompted a state-of-emergency declaration in Tennessee on Saturday. Shelters were opened in the Sequatchie Valley and elsewhere for folks forced from their homes by flooding, buildings and homes were damaged in Rhea County, and a Geraldine, Alabama, man was swept away in a flooded creek in Buck’s Pocket State Park in Jackson County, officials said.
Flooding was still being reported mid-morning on Monday on West Chickamauga Creek, and South Chickamauga Creek was causing problems across Catoosa County, Georgia, and South Hamilton County in Tennessee, weather service officials said in the warning.