Working on flooding hotspots before the floods come

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – For several days now, Chattanooga and the tri-state area have been preparing for what may be a major flooding event starting Tuesday.

Heavy rain could create havoc for low-lying areas, but it could also be worse if authorities don’t take some action now.

Ashley Henderson reports that Chattanooga’s first priority is drainage.

This crew, using what’s called a “knuckle boom arm”, is cleaning out problem spots that could make a flash flooding problem even worse. Ricky Colston, Director of City wide services, was on site to get this crew in place.

“What we’re doing here, is we’re cleaning a culvert out, of the debris, we’re hitting all of our ‘hot spots’ throughout the area. We’ve got about 229 hot spots throughout Chattanooga. And we’re also cleaning all of our structures, our catch basins, our curb inlets and there’s around 5,000 of those on the roadways.”

Colston says this is standard procedure before a big, predicted weather event.

“We normally do this before an event, any kind of big rain, but what we also do is we do this regularly, but what we’ll do is we’ll clean these hot spots and these catch basins and stuff beforehand and afterwards.”

He says that even with the culverts and drains cleaned out, flooding might still occur, but that’s where you come in.

“Of course, with the amount of rain that we’ve got coming, you’re still going to have areas that are going to flood. And that’s one thing that people really need to watch out for – if you see an area that is flooded, definitely don’t try to drive through it, but also just give us a call at 311, and we will uh, we’ll go out and check it out.”

Colston says that clogged drains and flash flooding are not their only concerns either.

“We’ll also have crews on standby tomorrow night, and also tree crews, because we’re afraid that there may be more trees down, because of the saturated ground.”

For residents of Chattanooga, faced with possible flooding, the city is doing what it can. The rest of it is up to you.

In Chattanooga, Ashley Henderson, News 12 Now.