A lot of our long-time readers know that Country’s Chatter is headquartered in Erwin, Tenn., a place you have been hearing about a lot on your network news reports lately. On Friday, Sept. 27, the unthinkable happened, when Hurricane Helene stayed this far inland and devastated the entire community.
Erwin is where Unicoi County Hospital was located. A small facility where helicopters were called in to rescue more than 55 people from the hospital rooftop, both patients and staff. A large part of Interstate 26, the main road to Asheville, NC from Erwin, TN was washed out. I believe the last count was 71 people missing, 2 confirmed dead.
It is not just here. It was Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, parts of Virginia, and a lot of northeast Tennessee. Cleanup will go on for a long time. Unicoi County is a family – I think we all know each other. A lot of help is being offered, from residents who did not sustain severe property damage, and even from people in neighboring communities. Utility companies from near and far rushed in to help get power restored to residents. Water will be another story — a boil alert is in place. We do not know for how long.
Business, homes, roads, bridges – the rebuilding will be a long time coming. We are fine. but in light of everything happening, although we just returned from a short vacation, we will be taking the next few days off to get our thoughts together, and to help wherever we can be of assistance. I have no idea when you will be seeing new articles on Country’s Chatter. In the meantime, please pray for all of the people affected by the flooding, and for the families of those who lost their lives.
We will be back!
3 thoughts on “Devastating flooding in Unicoi County, Tenn.”
Erwin/ Unicoi County Disaster Relief Fund
Time for a short vacation for Country’s Chatter