Murphy – Heavy rainfall late Sunday and early Monday caused the Hiwassee River to spill its banks upriver Monday morning, flooding riverside buildings and roads, but no injuries were reported.
Residents throughout Cherokee County reported high streams and creeks, particularly southeast of a line between Andrews and Brasstown. Engorged waterways fed into the Hiwassee River, which started to jump its banks around sunrise Monday.
Cherokee County Emergency Management Director Robin Caldwell said flooding was reported on Paradise Road, Beaver Ridge Road, McCombs Road, Bishop Lane and Smokeford Road – all in the Harshaw Road area south of U.S. 64. Properties in the Harshaw Farm Road area north of U.S. 64 were also affected.
A section of Beaver Ridge Road was submerged and impassible to traffic.
Roy and Barbara Murray arose Monday morning like always, along with their pet dog, Darcy, when their neighbor Michael Barber knocked on their door, advising them to get out. More than a foot of water or more got inside their home on Beaver Ridge Road.
Barber had gotten off work as a restaurant manager at 1 a.m. Monday and was asleep when he was awakened by unusual noises – the sounds of a rising river flooding his house, located on the banks of the Hiwassee River. He looked outside and saw trees floating by amid the rising river waters.
“I woke up and thought, ‘This has got to be a dream,’ ” Barber said.
He escaped along with his son, Dante Barber. The two went door to door to make sure their neighbors, like the Murrays, were safe.
Dante, a 15-year-old student at Murphy High School, also rescued a baby rabbit. Keeping it dry and warm, he debated what to do with it, but he was sure he would give it a name: “Lucky.”
Several houses along Beaver Ridge Road and across the river in the area of Smokeford Road were flooded Monday morning.
Off Smokeford Road, Owen Gibson was checking a rental house he owns, turning off the power and shutting off the propane tank, when he realized his renters’ cat Smoky was still inside the house. The ground-level garage flooded, but the rest of the house was raised and escaped most damage.
Gibson found the cat on top of a water heater in a crawl space. He carried the cat toward safety when an arriving fire engine checking on the neighborhood spooked Smoky, who swam back to the house. Gibson rescued Smoky a second time, putting the cat in his car for safekeeping.
The National Weather Service issued flood warnings in southeast Cherokee County and most of Clay County on Monday morning, expiring at 4 p.m. Monday.
“Fooding of rivers, creeks, streams and other low-lying and flood-prone locations is imminent or occurring,” the Weather Service advised.
The Weather Service also issued tornado watches early Sunday morning for Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Macon and Swain counties, as well as adjacent counties in Georgia and Tennessee
At least 19 people were killed in central and Southern states in connection with severe weather and flooding since the middle of last week, according to Accuweather.