Bradley County Sends Water Rescue Team to South Carolina

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF-TV) – Island roads are flooded, and motorists are driving through waterlogged intersections and streets in South Carolina cities.
The rain has stopped but it’ll be weeks before some areas return to normal in the wake of tropical storm Joaquin.
Some of the trained volunteers responding are from Bradley county.

Rainfall totals of over 16 inches were common across central South Carolina, and so far 9 people have lost their lives because of the high water.

A helicopter view of the Charleston area shows entire subdivisions isolated by high water.
There were abandoned vehicles were still where their owners left them as flood waters rose.

No Salvation Army or Red Cross volunteers from southeast Tennessee have been sent to the area, but a water rescue team from the Bradley County Fire Department has been busy.

CHIEF TROY MANEY, BRADLEY CO. FIRE DEPT. "We put a team of 4 people together. We sent,like I say, 4 of our crew over there..two boats and two jet skies …..and as of today,I just talked to them a few minutes ago they have saved 55 people so far."

This was a record-breaking rain. The national weather service says the last time this much rain, 16 inches, fell on one spot in the country was back in 1999 when 18 inches of rain fell on South Port, North Carolina during hurricane Floyd.

The Bradley county team joined hundreds of other volunteers in making sure no one was stranded.

CHIEF MANEY "The first rescue they made was a 17 year old boy that was in a kayak…and he was clinging to a tree when they got to him ..holding on. He was scared and cold but they saved him."

In addition to the local team, the state of Tennessee has sent 89 other rescue personnel to help out.

CHIEF MANEY "The next morning at daybreak…they retrieved 5 people from a mobile home …elderly female and another patient that was an amputee …they were really stranded with no way to go anywhere."

The team may be there for several days.

CHIEF MANEY "When we sent them out we told them 3 to 5 days…I would say we’re probably pushing the 5 days from what I’m hearing now."