Cleveland, Tenn., police and the Tennessee Highway Patrol clear an accident at mile marker 26 in the southbound lanes on Interstate 75.Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia took a beating from extra-violent pop-up storms Saturday afternoon.
"It came down hard and fast for awhile," WRCB-TV meteorologist Nick Austin said after they passed. Viewers in Red Bank reported 1.5 inches in an hour, he said, but totals varied across the region.
During the event's peak, which occurred between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., Hamilton County 911 logged multiple calls of downed power lines, traffic accidents and fires.
Austin attributed the strength of the storms to indirect effects of the jet stream, which gave them extra energy. Conditions are ripe for more pop-up storms today or Monday, but those should be less severe, he said.
WRCB's website calls for a 30 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms today and a high of 94.
The National Weather Service reported fallen trees northeast of Red Bank and a viewer sent pictures of a flooded parking lot on Hixson Pike, he said.
The downpours could bring some good news to firefighting efforts on Lookout Mountain.
"It did have an impact," said Amy McClave, with the U.S. Forest Service. "As to the full extent it helped, we will know more [today] when we see the fire in the heat of day again."
A least three accidents occurred on interstates 24 and 75 in Hamilton and Bradley counties during the storm's height. The Tennessee Highway Patrol could not confirm if weather played a role in those accidents or whether anyone was badly hurt in the crashes.
An I-24 eastbound crash, which occurred around 3:30 p.m. at mile marker 172, blocked traffic. Another Hamilton County accident occurred on I-75 northbound near Ooltewah at Exit 11.
Cellphone footage shows Cleveland police and Tennessee Highway Patrol officers clearing a wreck shortly in the southbound lanes of I-75 at mile marker 26 shortly after 2 p.m. Debris covers a rain-soaked roadway in the pictures.
Cleveland/Bradley County Emergency Management Agency spokesman Curtis Cline said he did not know of any reports of downed power lines, fallen trees or surface road accidents caused by the weather.
Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow on Twitter @pleach_tfp.