Closer to home
Extensive rain and the possibility of strong winds brought by remnants of Hurricane Nate caused several event cancellations in the Chattanooga area on Sunday.
Chattanooga’s Pride Parade was rescheduled for a tentative date of Oct. 29, though its Pride show continued as planned after being moved to the Barking Legs Theater. The event’s closing cookout at Images Night Club was also scheduled to go on as planned.
The City Celebration and Ciclovia, one of RiverRock’s newest events, was also postponed until Oct. 29 due to the weather conditions.
“On the bright side, having the City Celebration & Ciclovia on the 29th means that we get to wear costumes and eat candy!” reads a Facebook post by Mocs in the City, a social media group dedicated to University of Tennessee at Chattanooga events in the city.
The Chattanooga Market’s Erlanger Health Fair was also canceled. The market posted to Facebook just before 2 p.m. saying the market itself would remain open, however.
The storm wasn’t expected to linger in the area for as long as it was originally thought, WRCB weekend meteorologist Nick Austin said.
“Nate is going to be long gone by [today],” he said. “It’ll move up past Chattanooga, and it’ll end in Cleveland and Athens and Murphy and all those areas probably by 9 o’clock [Sunday night].”
As of 5 p.m., the highest rain totals for the area were at 4 1/2 inches in Soddy-Daisy, and the Chattanooga Airport recorded a 30 mph wind gust.
Austin said the storm picked up speed and lost strength, causing rain to end sooner. But wind gusts of up to 35 or 40 mph could still pick up in areas of high elevation, he said.
As of 6:30 p.m., EPB’s outage map showed minimal to moderate power outages across Hamilton County, and in surrounding counties, a total of 73 Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative customers were without power. Local emergency dispatchers reported some trees and branches being down, but that it wasn’t an unusually high number.
WRCB reported a power line being down on Mountain Creek Road Sunday afternoon, causing part of the road to close temporarily.