Broken water main floods Chattanooga homeless camp

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee(WDEF) – A homeless camp in Chattanooga endured several days of flooding but what caused the flood is raising eyebrows.

Monday night, members of the homeless camp located under the Broad Street overpass came to the News 12 building to talk about the camp being under water.

According to two of the occupants, water had been gushing from an overhead pipe for several days. They told News 12 they complained to city police, fire and the Tennessee American Water Company, but go not response.

Tuesday morning, News 12 went to the camp site but the only thing moving was a dog and cat. Everyone else was gone.

From a distance, the sound of rushing water hitting against concrete could be heard. A closer examination of the scene revealed fast running water coming down a wall and into the camp.

Moments after News 12 arrived on scene, crews from Tennessee American Water Company showed up and determined the water was coming from a broken water main.

"We were just made aware of it today," said Tennessee American Water Field Supervisor Jake Cooper.

Hours later, Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition Founder Stephen Wright arrived at the camp to check up on the occupants. Moments after arriving, he learned about the broken water main that had flooded the camp.

"Tennessee American Water probably didn’t realize that much water was pouring out that line for that period of time. I figured they had some kind of monitoring system or something that would show that. For what ever reason, it pretty much destroyed a majority of that camp," Wright said.

According to the campsite occupants, the flooding started after they were asked by a land developer to consider relocating. Collier Construction is currently building 61 single family homes right next door to the campsite.

The developer told News 12 his company had nothing to do with the broken water main. He also stated that he did in fact talk to the homeless neighbors about moving to another location, but also said the conversation was very positive.

"There was certainly some concern on our part about having homeless population that was in close proximity to our site. But like I said, after our conversation with them, it was perfectly clear that we actually had some really good neighbors and we’re not at all concerned about it," said Developer Ethan Collier.

Dillon Burroughs is the founder of a Chattanooga homeless ministry called Revelant Hope. He also came by to check up on the campsite occupants after hearing the camp had flooding.

Burroughs told News 12 the situation under the Broad Street overpass is just a small example of a bigger problem for many homeless people throughout Chattanooga who reside in similar camps.

"We’re there to try an make a difference in those cases but it’s never easy. The developer wants people moved out so they can have a nice piece of property; the people who are there don’t want to be outside but they have no where else to go. It leaves a complex situation for everyone involved,"Burroughs said.