Falling tree kills parents and child in car as Chattanooga flooding prompts dozens of water rescues

A mother, father and child were killed when a tree fell on their car during heavy rain and flooding in Tennessee, an official said Wednesday.

The three were killed when saturated ground caused a large tree to fall in the Chattanooga suburb of East Ridge just after midnight, Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management spokesperson Amy Maxwell said.

A search was also ongoing Wednesday for a man who walked through a flooded road in Chattanooga on Tuesday night but hadn’t been seen since, Maxwell said.

The full extent of the damage isn’t yet known. County officials planned to tour the damage Wednesday morning, Maxwell said.

Rainfall totals by Wednesday had piled up to more than half a foot in some parts of the Chattanooga metropolitan area, CBS affiliate WDEF reported, adding that flash flooding was widespread. 

Flooding prompted dozens of rescues of people stuck in homes and swamped vehicles on Tuesday, including several drivers that became stranded on an interstate highway as the storm ramped up, WDEF reported. According to the station, officials in Catoosa County — just over the border in Georgia — also reported more than 100 evacuations and dozens of rescues from two local apartment complexes due to the weather. 

In Hamilton County, which includes Chattanooga, officials shared a video and images on social media that showed first responders rescuing a family in waist-deep water and paddling down flooded streets in rafts in order to reach them. Schools in the county were closed Wednesday.

The region was bracing for more rainfall and flooding Wednesday. Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp declared a local state of emergency Tuesday night. Residents were urged to exercise extreme caution.

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of middle Tennessee through Wednesday night, warning of scattered flash flooding with tropical-like heavy rainfall and the possibility of training storms, especially over already saturated areas.

Chattanooga Fire crews rescued people trapped in vehicles and residents stuck in their homes, fire department officials said. Flooding closed parts of Interstate 24 in the area, but it reopened once floodwaters receded.

Swiftwater rescue teams rescued residents of three East Ridge homes trapped by rising floodwaters, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Austin Garrett said the flooding was more extensive than he had seen before, noting that it is usually concentrated in one area, The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.

“This is extremely widespread. It made it difficult for us to even get here ourselves to try to help other people,” he said. “So no, I’ve never seen it to this extent, this widespread in so many areas and impacting travel the way it is.”