KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It was an eventful week in East Tennessee. From Tonka the elephant beginning his crate training to a nationwide outage for AT&T customers, these stories got your attention.
Story 1
"The largest elephant in North America will leave Knoxville soon"
Zoo Knoxville is preparing to say farewell to its remaining bull African Elephant and the largest of its herd, Tonka. He is expected to leave the zoo in the coming months.
This poses some challenges in the zoo moving him to Hohenwald, home to a community of aging elephants in an Elephant Sanctuary. That's where Drew Petty, owner of Petty's Welding comes in.
"There's not a box this size in the Western Hemisphere to move him in that is easy enough to get to Knoxville," Petty said.
Petty said it was an exciting project, especially since he grew up seeing Tonka at the zoo. But it's also something his team is taking seriously.
"It's designed around his safety," he said. "When you're transporting 40,000 pounds with a live heartbeat down I-40 on a tractor-trailer. It's not a box of Kleenex falling out on the side of the interstate if something goes wrong. It's, it's very critical to the life of this animal."
Story 2
"Hardin Valley Academy coach 'no longer with KCS' after being put on administrative leave amid criminal investigation"
Knox County Schools confirmed Sunday that a Hardin Valley Academy coach no longer works for the school system.
Tyler Roach was originally placed on administrative leave in December 2023 as the Knox County Sheriff's Office conducted an investigation involving him.
On Sunday, KCS said Roach was "no longer with KCS" as of Feb. 6. KCS did not say why Roach was no longer employed with them. Roach coached baseball at Hardin Valley Academy and collected state, district and region champion accolades during his career.
Story 3
"AT&T services reportedly down nationwide"
AT&T users reported a widespread outage in the United States Thursday morning that left them unable to make calls, texts or access the internet.
Customers appeared to have access to "SOS mode," which allows cell phone users without access to regular service to call 911 in an emergency, piggybacking off of other networks nearby to do so.
AT&T later acknowledged the outage on Thursday morning, telling NBC News some customers were "experiencing wireless service interruptions" and that it was working to restore service.
AT&T has since revealed the cause of the outage and said a majority of its users' service has been restored.
Story 4
"Daylight saving time starts soon. Here's when clocks will 'spring forward' in 2024"
It's almost that time to "spring forward," again! While daylight saving time has been observed for more than 50 years, many dread the biannual time shift.
Clocks will "spring forward" one hour at 2 a.m. on March 10, causing most people to lose an hour of sleep. It won't be until Nov. 3, the first Sunday of November, when Americans fiddle with their clocks again to "fall back" to standard time.
The Sunshine Protection Act, a federal bill first introduced by Republican Florida lawmakers Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Vern Buchanan in 2018, has never been signed into law despite multiple attempts in Congress.
Story 5
"Several injured after 2 crashes involving nearly a dozen vehicles on I-81 South"
On Monday morning, the Tennessee Highway Department of Transportation reported on a commercial vehicle crash on I-81 South in Hamblen County, resulting in backed-up traffic.
That afternoon, it was reported that several people were injured after two crashes involving semi-trucks.
According to TDOT, the first crash happened at exit 15 to Fish Hatchery Road around 7 a.m. S semi-truck carrying a tanker was traveling north on I-81 when it crossed over the median and crashed through a guardrail onto the other side of I-81.
The second crash, involving six vehicles, happened on the southbound side at mile marker 17 in Greene County as crews were trying to clear the first crash in Hamblen County.
10News has not received an update on the people who were injured.
