Tag Archives: Tennessee

Great Smoky Mountains fires leave three dead, ‘scene of destruction’

A wildfire burns on a hillside after a mandatory evacuation was ordered in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in a picture released November 30, 2016. Tennessee Highway

By Laila Kearney and Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) – Officials said on Tuesday that “the worst is over” for two small Tennessee resort towns in the Great Smoky Mountains where wildfires destroyed or damaged some 150 homes and other structures, forced thousands to flee and threatened country music star Dolly Parton’s theme park, Dollywood.

The flames, driven to the outskirts of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge overnight by hurricane-force winds and fed by drought-parched brush, forced 14,000 people to flee and sent three to hospitals with severe burns, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said.

“I can tell you that we’ve all been overwhelmed at scene of destruction in the county and primarily in city of Gatlinburg,” Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters told reporters at a press conference.

Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner said that about half of the town of some 3,000 people, known as the “gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains,” had been affected by the blazes, although its downtown was largely spared.

Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said the so-called Chimney Top fire exploded on Monday evening as humidity dropped and wind gusts reached nearly 90 miles per hour.

“I can tell you this, whatever we deal with today is not gonna be anything like what we dealt with last night. The worst is definitely over with,” Miller said at the news conference.

It was not immediately clear how many people were ordered from Pigeon Forge, which includes Dollywood’s 150-acre spread of rides and other attractions.

The theme park said it would suspend operations on Wednesday because of the wildfires, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials said all of the park’s facilities were closed because of extensive fire activity and downed trees.

“I have been watching the terrible fires in the Great Smoky Mountains and I am heartbroken,” Parton said in a written statement.

About 12,000 homes and businesses were left without power in the area and some 2,000 people sought refuge in shelters, officials said. Downed power lines and fallen trees sparked several smaller fires, local media reported.

Members of the state’s National Guard have been called in to assist first responders.

Firefighters have battled dozens of wildfires across the U.S. Southeast in recent weeks, where tens of thousands of acres of forest have been scorched.

“It’s the apocalypse on both sides” of the city’s center, volunteer Fire Department Lieutenant Bobby Balding told local 9News.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Wildfires threaten Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, evacuations ordered

Smoke plumes from wildfires are shown in the Great Smokey Mountains near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, U.S., November 28, 2016.

By Kami Klein

For the past couple of weeks, wildfires have spread throughout the southeast areas of the country. Georgia, North Carolina, and now Tennessee have been hit the hardest, besieged by the worst possible weather and drought conditions for battling the spreading flames.  Wind gusts were reaching 75 mph, creating new fires wherever embers were blown.  

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said in a news release that the flames are headed into Gatlinburg, where much damage has already been reported. Authorities issued a Level 3 state emergency and ordered evacuations of Gatlinburg, Mynatt Park, Park Vista, Ski Mounty and Pigeon Forge on Monday.

Fires in Gatlinburg, Monday night, November 28th, 2016

Fires in Gatlinburg, Monday night, November 28th, 2016

According to the Washington Post, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) estimated that more than 14,000 visitors and residents were evacuated from Gatlinburg, with thousands more being forced to flee Pigeon Forge and other towns and villages in the area. Four injuries have been reported with burns, requiring one patient to be hospitalized.

On Monday afternoon, a wildfire from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park spread swiftly when strong wind gusts scattered embers across long distances, starting fires that fed off drought-stricken trees. The winds also knocked down power lines, igniting new fires, according to authorities.

“Everything was like a perfect storm,” said Cassius Cash, superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to CNN affiliate WATE.

According to Reuters, the fire exploded from 10 acres Sunday night into a 500-acre blaze Monday night. 

Motorists stop to view wildfires in the Great Smokey Mountains near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, U.S., November 28, 2016. Photo taken November 28, 2016. Courtesy of National Park Services Staff/Handout via REUTERS

Motorists stop to view wildfires in the Great Smokey Mountains near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, U.S., November 28, 2016. Photo taken November 28, 2016. Courtesy of National Park Services Staff/Handout via REUTERS

“We urge the public to pray. We urge the public to stay off the highways. The traffic that is on the roads is emergency equipment. If (the public) could just stay home and stay tuned to their local media outlet,” Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said at a Monday night press conference.

Rain showers have begun in the area and state officials are hoping the rainfall amounts will be enough to help curb wildfires that continue to break out due to blowing embers.  

“Unfortunately, some wind gusts will accompany this rain,” noted the National Weather Service.

High winds are possible across eastern Tennessee, southwest Virginia and southwest North Carolina and the Weather Service has warned that these conditions could topple trees and power lines and fan the flames, making it extremely dangerous for firefighters.

Driver arrested, faces charges in deadly Tennessee school bus crash

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.,

By Frank McGurty

(Reuters) – A bus carrying elementary students home from school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, crashed on Monday afternoon, killing six children and sending nearly two dozen to a hospital with injuries, authorities said.

The driver, identified as Johnthony Walker, 24, was taken into custody and faces five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving charges, Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said during a news conference.

“This is an absolute nightmare for our community,” Fletcher said.

Chattanooga Police said earlier on Twitter the driver was being questioned and was cooperating with investigators.

Speed appeared to have contributed to the crash, which happened at 4 p.m. CST, Fletcher said.

The bus crash left five dead, police said on Twitter late on Monday. Five students died at the scene and a sixth student died at a hospital, according to Melydia Clewell, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office.

The vehicle normally carries 35 passengers, Clewell said. It was not clear how many students were riding in the bus when it crashed.

The students were in kindergarten through fifth grade, she said, which would make them roughly aged between five and 10.

Clewell said two or three children who were in hospital “could go either way.”

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S., November 21, 2016. Courtesy of Chattanooga Fire Dept/Handout via REUTERS

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S., November 21, 2016. Courtesy of Chattanooga Fire Dept/Handout via REUTERS

The crash left the bright yellow school bus wrapped around a tree, mangled and nearly severed in two. Rescue teams were still sifting through the wreckage of the bus, which was resting on its side, two hours after the crash.

Federal transportation investigators were also opening a probe into the crash, and planned to send a team to Chattanooga on Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

School officials had not found any complaints filed against the driver, Clewell said.

Two bloodied children were lying on stretchers in a front yard receiving attention from first responders nearly an hour after the crash, while others not taken to the hospital appeared dazed with cuts on their faces, the Chattanooga Times Free Press newspaper said on its website.

Asked about the crash after a hearing in Nashville, Governor Bill Haslam said the state would offer its assistance.

“It’s a sad situation anytime there’s a school bus with children involved, which there is in this case,” he said.

(Reporting by Frank McGurty; Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta in New York, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Rory Carroll in San Francisco, Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Wildfires scorch U.S. Southeast, forecast adds to concerns

A heavy air tanker drops fire retardant over the Boteler wildfire near Hayesville, North Carolina, U.S.

By Rich McKay

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Dozens of wildfires burned in the U.S. Southeast on Tuesday, scorching tens of thousands of acres of forest and sending plumes of smoke across hundreds of miles of western North Carolina, northern and central Georgia and parts of eastern Tennessee.

Air quality alerts were issued across swaths of those states, with hazy smoke reaching as far south as Atlanta and north to Knoxville, Tennessee. People in the affected areas were urged to stay indoors or limit outside activity, officials said.

The fires could take weeks to extinguish, and a lack of rain in the forecast has added to concerns, said Wendy Burnett, spokeswoman for the Georgia Forestry Commission.

“The extended drought across the Southeast is the number one culprit,” Burnett said in an interview. “Rain is going to be what it takes to knock this down anytime soon. We’re doing every rain dance we know.”

North Carolina has been the hardest hit with more than 36,800 acres in western parts of the state burning in 15 major fires that are in various stages of being controlled, according to the governor’s office.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has ordered a state of emergency in 25 counties. The fires closed parts of the Appalachian Trail, along with parks, roads and stretches of highways, and forced the evacuation of about 1,000 residents, the governor’s office said in a statement.

In Georgia, more than 28,000 acres are burning, according to Burnett, forcing the evacuation of about 60 homes. The largest fire is on the Rough Ridge in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, she said, with about 19,500 acres burning.

That blaze was caused by a lightning strike, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Michelle Burnett, while several others on federal land remain under investigation.

In Tennessee, nearly 16,000 acres have burned in 67 active fires, according to the state Department of Agriculture’s Division of Forestry.

Arson is suspected in at least one major fire in Tennessee, according to local news accounts. Others were caused by camp fires, farm equipment and a tossed cigarette, officials and state websites said.

“It’s been so dry, that one spark is all it takes to burn a forest,” said the Georgia Forestry Commission’s Burnett.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alan Crosby)

Colonial expects restart of gasoline line on Wednesday after leak

Vehicles wait in line for gas at a Twice Daily gas station on Franklin Road in Brentwood, Tennessee, U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – United States.Colonial Pipeline Co said it expects a full restart of its gasoline line by Wednesday evening after its biggest leak in nearly two decades squeezed supply and led to increased prices at the pump in southeast

The biggest refined products system in the U.S. restarted parts of the line a few days after a leak was discovered on Sept. 9. The damaged section of the 1.3 million-barrel-a-day line that connects the refining hub of the Gulf Coast to the East Coast has been shut for more than 12 days.

Motorists have faced long lines and shortage of fuel in many states across the southeast, such as North Carolina and Tennessee.

Consumers are expected to feel the pinch for slightly longer, until the supply chain is fully restored after the 6,000-8,000 barrel leak in Shelby County, Alabama.

Prices in Georgia, one of the most affected, inched up by another cent on Wednesday, with a gallon of regular gasoline currently at $2.372, about 28 cents higher than last week’s average prices, according to motorist advocacy group AAA.

The outage led to a record drop in inventories in the East Coast and sent Gulf Coast gasoline stockpiles soaring to record highs.

The company built a section of pipe to bypass the damaged portion, in order to restart operations quickly. The U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) approved the operation of the bypass as a temporary measure to restore service, late Tuesday.

That approval, however, does not affect the terms of the Corrective Action Order PHMSA issued on Sept. 16.

Colonial said it successfully tested and completed the connection of the bypass segment to the main line on Wednesday morning.

After the line is restarted, Colonial will work with federal, state and local officials to remove the damaged segment of the original line and also try to determine the cause of the leak. It was discovered on Sept. 9 by a mining inspector who smelled a fuel odor.

(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by Chris Reese)

Gasoline prices spike as Colonial begins bypass around damaged line

Out of fuel signs are pictured on gas pumps at a Mapco gas station at Spence Lane and Lebanon Pike in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

By David Gaffen

(Reuters) – Retail gasoline prices surged due to continuing problems with Colonial Pipeline Co’s gasoline line that carries fuel to the U.S. East Coast, as the company started to construct a bypass line around the leak.

Colonial said on Saturday evening that it would construct a bypass that circumvents the leak, which occurred more than a week ago in Shelby County, Alabama. It is unclear when construction will be completed but the company has previously said it anticipates reopening the line, which can carry up to 1.2 million barrels of gasoline a day, later this week.

The volume of the spill is estimated to be between 6,000 and 8,000 barrels.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Georgia rose to $2.26 as of Sunday morning, according motorists’ advocacy group AAA, up more than six cents overnight and more than 15 cents in a week. Prices were up 4 cents in North Carolina to $2.136 and 4 cents in South Carolina to $2.011.

Local media reports have shown gasoline lines forming across the U.S. Southeast due to the shutdown and analysts believe that retail prices could be affected for more than two weeks. New York gasoline futures are up 9 percent in the past week, and rose 0.68 percent to $1.4715 a gallon after the market opened for trading at 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday (0000 GMT Monday).

Colonial shut its main gasoline and distillate lines that run from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast on Sept. 9 after the leak was discovered. The damaged Line 1 can carry 1.2 million barrels of gasoline per day and runs from Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina.

Several states in the Southeast have issued emergency orders waiving certain rules that restrict transport of fuel by road in order to keep filling stations stocked with fuel. It is unclear how quickly the pipeline will be fixed.

“I don’t take much solace in Colonial’s updates,” said Patrick DeHaan, a petroleum analyst who writes a blog called Gas Buddy.

He said prices are moving up roughly one-tenth of 1 cent every hour and that it could take several weeks before prices return to normal.

A Colonial spokeswoman had no immediate response to DeHaan’s assertion.

However, James Williams of WTRG in London, Arkansas, said the projected timeline for restart is possible, even with testing required by federal authorities. He also said consumers’ tendencies to top off their tanks when this type of news hits is not necessarily cause for alarm, either.

“The shortage appears greater because people are filling up more often so you are certain there is a shortage because there are lines at the station but on average they are only purchasing the quarter of a tank of gas instead of three-quarters,” he said.

DeHaan said prices at non-branded chains were rising more quickly than those with larger, branded operations, because larger regional gasoline companies have the ability to tap supply more quickly.

Coming into this week, U.S. East Coast inventories of total motor gasoline, which includes blending components, was higher seasonally than in the past 10 years, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

(Reporting By David Gaffen and Dan Freed in New York; Editing by Bill Trott)

Minor Earthquake Hits New Madrid Fault

A minor earthquake struck the New Madrid fault Tuesday, the second quake on the fault line in the last two weeks.

The magnitude 2.7 quake struck around 8:46 p.m. Tuesday about 5 miles from the town of New Madrid, Missouri.  The Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis said the quake was 5.9 miles deep.

Residents in northwest Tennessee, southeast Missouri and western Kentucky all reported slight shaking from the quake.

It’s the second minor quake along the New Madrid Fault in two weeks.  A magnitude 3.5 quake struck near Memphis, Tennessee on August 25th.

The New Madrid fault line is twenty times larger than the San Andreas fault line in California.

One Missouri official is calling on residents to check to make sure they have earthquake coverage as part of their homeowners insurance.  The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the probability of a 7.5 or greater quake in the next 50 years at 7-10%, with the possibility of a quake stronger than 6.0 at 25-40%.

Small Earthquake Strikes West Tennessee Along New Madrid Fault

Residents of western Tennessee were given a jolt to their Wednesday morning commutes when a small earthquake struck around 8:26 a.m.

The magnitude 3.5 quake was centered about 16 miles northwest of Covington, TN or about 50 miles north of Memphis.

“I was just sitting down and I was inside of a building and it was just shaking, so I thought it was construction or something,” Covington resident Kiana Burnett told WMC-TV.

Local officials say there were no reports of damage and that inspections of bridges are taking place for safety reasons, not because they actually believe any bridge was damaged by the quake.

“What it means for the local person is if you were in Covington and weren’t in a car or something, or was just sitting somewhere, you probably felt an earthquake this morning, and that’s about all it means,” Dr. Mitch Withers of the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information told WMC.

The quake struck along the New Madrid Fault, a massive fault line that is 20 times larger than the famed San Andreas fault in California.   Withers did remind reporters that just because this quake did not cause large damage, the fault line can cause massive damage from significant earthquakes.

Gunman Killed in Nashville Area Movie Theater

A gunman has been killed after opening fire inside a Nashville, Tennessee area movie theater.

A spokesman for the Nashville Metro P.D., Don Aaron, told reporters on the scene that man came to a showing of the movie “Mad Max” at the Carmike Hickory 8 theater in Antioch with a gun and a hatchet.  The gunman wounded one person with the hatchet and people stormed out of the theater.

A police officer entered the theater from the projection booth.  As the officer was clearing the theater, the gunman opened fire on the police officer.  The officer returned fire as he backed out of the room and held the gunman in place until a SWAT team arrived on the scene.

When the SWAT team arrived and engaged the shooter, he returned fire and then was shot dead by the police.

Aaron told the press conference that two backpacks were found at the scene that belonged to the shooter and the bomb squad was dealing with the bags.

The incident is the second theater shooting at a movie theatre in two weeks.  On July 23rd, a shooter killed 2 and wounded 8 before killing himself inside a theater in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Fifth Chattanooga Shooting Victim Dies

A Navy petty officer wounded in the terror attack on two military recruiting centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee has died from his wounds.

The fallen soldier is Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith.  He leaves behind a wife and three young daughters.

Smith’s mother Paula Proxmire went to the memorial site for those slain by Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez and placed an American flag and baseball mitt in honor of her son.  She said that America and baseball were her son’s passions.

“My son is a hero. He died doing what he loved. He would have had it no other way,” Proxmire, from Kansas, told NBC News. “He’s been my hero since the day I gave birth to him.”

Meanwhile, the family of Abdulazeez reportedly told investigators that their son suffered from depression and was a drug addict, so they sent him to Jordan to try and get him away from Chattanooga friends who were a “bad influence.”  However, relatives and friends admitted they saw changes in his behavior after his return from seven months in Jordan.

Investigators say Abdulazeez sent a text message to a friend before the attacks that included the Islamic verse “Whoever shows enmity to a friend of mine, then I have declared war against him.”

The FBI reports there is nothing to connect the gunman to ISIS or any other international terrorism group.