NEWPORT, Tennessee — Some Cocke County neighbors are still not in their homes after the county saw historic flooding after Hurricane Helene. Much of the flooding affected neighbors along the Pigeon and French Broad Rivers.
"I've seen the river up to where I've driven in it before, but I've never seen it reach the town ever in my life. That's historical," said Norman Yow, who said he was born in Cocke County.
Newport has seen flooding around the Pigeon and French Broad Rivers. But through the devastation, Cocke County residents say their community is coming together to help each other."
"If you drive down, you'll see neighbors literally emptying their home out right now, that's the side I've never seen," said Yow.
Yow said although he's moved away from Cocke County, he hunts in the area and wanted to see what was being done.
"I know recovery is coming and with the recovery comes better. So I'm hoping that'll happen. Yeah. I'm hoping we get a lot of resources. A lot of people is bringing water. That's awesome. Awesome. Love to see the quick reaction. At the same time, we're gonna need funds, Newport's gonna need a lot of funds to rebuild this back up," said Yow.
Clayton Shipley is the owner of CRS Roofing. He said he was passing out business cards offering to remove trees and debris from people's yards. The company is based in Sevierville, so he said they're bringing in all the big equipment to help.
"We're gonna bring everything about eight o'clock in the morning, the dump trucks and the skid steers and excavator. We'll be here all week and probably next week if they need it, whoever needs it, we've just been passed out cards to anybody that we can find, that don't have flood insurance," said Shipley.
Clayton said he's doing this all for free because it's the right thing to do.
"Down that road, we found a lot of people that don't have flood insurance so we just wanna help. That's all we're doing. There'll be no charge to anybody," said Shipley.
He said if anyone in Cocke County needs help, they can call CRS Roofing at 865-755-4785.
People in Newport have also been providing free food and water for the community.