Storms ravage south Walker County Sunday night
Eleven Walker County residences were damaged as a series of storms moved through the area late Sunday night and in the early hours of Monday.
“Thankfully, emergency personnel are not aware of any missing persons related to the storm,” Walker County Government posted on Facebook Monday. The Facebook page also reported there were no personal injuries but significant damage to personal property.
Lake Howard Road at Arnold, McCarter Road at the bypass and a portion of Bowen Lane in LaFayette were closed Monday afternoon.
“We still have several trees down around the county blocking one or both lanes,” according to the county’s Facebook page. “There are also locations that have flood damage or are washed out that may not be marked yet.
“Emergency personnel are currently conducting a damage assessment on the southern end of the county.”
Walker County Fire Rescue, on its Facebook page, posted Sunday night that the agency was “responding to nearly a dozen locations with storm damage.
These locations are in the Halls Valley Road, Highway 151 and Beaver Creek Drive area.”
Fire Rescue asked citizens to avoid the area so that emergency and public works crews could perform their jobs.
The county is also opening a temporary shelter for those displaced by the storm, Fire Rescue reported.
Walker County officials urged residents to use caution as storm clean up begins.
“Save your errands for another day. If you don’t have to get out, stay home. If you do get out, use extreme caution and watch for debris or other hazards.”
Walker County has notified electricity providers they are authorized to reconnect service for those whose service was disrupted by the storms without an inspection at this time. County planning, zoning and inspections will send someone to perform an inspection in the next 14 days, the post said.
The county landfill only accepted commercial customers Monday, explaining that the Republic Services landfill in Alabama, where the county transfers municipal solid waste, is closed until further notice due to the storms, the post said.
Ga. 151 in Naomi was closed to traffic Monday afternoon due to the number of power lines across the road with crews working to determine whether any of the lines were still live, a sheriff’s deputy said.
North Georgia Electric Membership Corp. posted on its Facebook page that more than 26,000 members lost power Sunday night throughout NGEMC’s seven-county service area; however, with crews working all night, the number of outages was down to about 18,000 by 8 a.m. Monday.
NGEMC said the utility is working as quickly as possible to restore power safely although that full restoration could take multiple days as with so many roadways still impassable, it was hard to tell the full scope of the damage. The utility approximated 75 broken power poles due to the storm, but were planning to work around the clock to get power restored.
NGEMC also urged “medically fragile members” to arrange for back-up supplies and consider temporarily relocating if they are currently without power.
“We were pretty fortunate that everything went around us,” Chickamauga City Manager Micheal Haney said.
The city had a few flash floods and some fallen trees, he said. The city has some sporadic power outages since 5 a.m. Monday due to fallen trees taking power lines, but he expected those lines to be repaired soon.
“TVA Distribution lines are down from the storms last night and this morning,” Chickamauga police reported on Facebook Monday. “TVA & Chickamauga Electric crews are working to have the power back on as quickly as possible.”
A resident reported water over Lee and Clarkson Road Monday afternoon. Another resident reported high water along surrounding West Chickamauga Creek where it flows under Ga. 341 between Chickamauga and LaFayette; she said the water receded somewhat Monday afternoon but expected it to crest again.
A few trees or limbs had already been cut up and removed from Ga. 136 in the span from Villanow and over Taylor Ridge by noon Monday, one motorist reported.
The north end of Walker County was spared the brunt of the storms.
Derick Forester with the Lookout Mountain Police Department said he was relieved that the city saw only a few fallen limbs and some sporadic power outages.
A Rossville employee reported a few trees down but not the significant damage that neighboring communities saw from the storm.
McFarland Avenue in Rossville was in good shape and easily driveable as of noon on Monday, and it appears that the South Rossville Senior Village did not suffer any damage, although there were reports of a few side streets in the city with downed trees and power lines.
Rossville City Park, already temporarily closed except for the walking tracks due to COVID-19, had only a minor amount of debris at the Ellis Road entrance, mostly with broken tree branches, although the park had one uprooted tree near the old remote control racetrack adjacent to Salem Road.
Rossville Public Works updated its Facebook page with photos of the most damaged areas and streets and said crews were clearing out what areas they can that do not include downed power lines.
LaFayette City Manager David Hamilton could not be reached for comment as of press time Monday.