Emergency management services remained on alert through Wednesday evening following 17 swift water rescues Wednesday in the Cookeville area.
Clear evidence of property damage, road damage and the potential for serious injury abounded. Remarkably, only four people reported injuries and none of those were life threatening. Featured in a Channel 4 news story Wednesday, Darlene Adkins shared her tale of being trapped in her car for an hour where she feared for her life. Sean Oshenbien, TTU student body president, spoke on the segment as one of her rescuers.
Photographs by area citizens revealed a submerged vehicle and auditorium at Upperman High School, partially submerged houses, bridges and roads that were destroyed and more.
Putnam county seemed to sustain the most damage, but Jackson and Overton county also had washed away roads and flood related damages. No counties reported serious injuries.
The rainfall that began in the morning hours and continued heavily for a couple of hours produced record rainfall levels for a 24 hour period in Tennessee for August 18, 2010.
The heroes of the day were the fast responding network of county emergency services agencies. Putnam County EMA sent a big "thank you" to the following:
THP Helicopter
White County
Jackson County
Rutherford County
Smith County
Cumberland County
Wilson County
Tennessee Association of Rescue Squads(TARS) State Swiftwater Team
Smyrna
Said the agency, "We truly are a "Volunteer" State! Lives were saved!!"
Cookeville native Lisa Ebersole, speaking about the damage to her family's Echo Valley Pool said on Facebook "Thanks to all for your kind thoughts and comments...I would like to cry but Dad said that would just add to the water problem...we are thankful no one was hurt."
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