GREENE COUNTY, Tenn. — Most of Greene County still does not have running water, days after historic flooding swelled nearby rivers and dunked the rural community underwater.
David Beverly, the Greene County Sheriff's Department chief deputy, said around 90% of the county remained without water on Thursday. He said while crews worked to restore water infrastructure, distribution sites were set up where people could collect bottles of water to use at home. He said there is a possibility authorities would increase the amount of water they give out at those sites.
"I'm without water, my family's without water — so we're all going through this together," he said.
While water utilities were almost entirely unavailable for the county, he said electricity was mostly restored. As of Thursday, he said only 37 people were without power.
He also said River Road, which runs through the mountains of Greene County and heads to Hot Springs, was "totally gone." He said authorities had to turn away 40 vehicles Wednesday after they approached the road thinking they would be able to use it.
He said signage would be soon displayed at Lower Creek Road and Rollins Chapel Road to let people know they would not be able to get through the road. He also said some reopened roads in North Carolina have led to congestion on Asheville Highway in the county.
"There's a lot of traffic on that road right now because of this," he said. "If people could just be patient. If you're traveling, I understand. But if you're just sightseeing right now, this is going to last a while and so it's creating congestion."
He said traffic in the county was causing issues for cleanup crews trying to navigate the area. So, he asked people to avoid driving through Greene County's roads unless they absolutely needed to. He asked people to avoid sightseeing while crews work to recover from the storm.
He also said the county had no missing people in the county. Mostly, he said authorities in the county were conducting welfare checks for distant family members who knew people in the area.
"It's not that they're truly a missing person due to the floods. It's more like a welfare check," he said.