Residents of Newport, Tennessee, have been ordered to evacuate the town “immediately” as heavy rainfall and flash flooding stemming from Hurricane Helene makes its way north.
Cocke County Mayor Rob Mathis wrote his Facebook page just before 3 p.m. EST Friday that the Waterville Dam “HAS SUFFERED A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE” and ordered the “EVACUATION ALL OF DOWNTOWN NEWPORT IMMEDIATELY.”
Mathis posted about half an hour later that he was declaring a state of emergency for the county, which is located roughly 60 miles east of Knoxville.
That moment when a town catastrophically lives up to its name.