Heavy rain led to flooding around Chattanooga, Tennesse, where a family of three was killed when a tree fell on their car early Wednesday morning.
News reports indicated that saturated ground caused the large tree to fall in East Ridge, outside of Chattanooga. The mother, father and child died at the scene, the New York Times reported. Another body was found after a man ran past barricades, the Associated Press and Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.
More than 60 vehicles were stuck on a flooded interstate highway, and first responders carried people on their backs to safer ground, the Hamilton County emergency management director said.
Hundreds of calls poured into the county’s 911 center, so many that people were placed on hold throughout the early morning hours.
More than six inches of rain was recorded Tuesday evening at the Chattanooga airport, the second-highest rainfall recorded in the area, the Chattanooga newspaper reported. More flooding was expected as the storm system dumped more rain on east Tennessee and northwest Georgia. Still, the mayor of East Ridge said the property damage and loss of life could have been worse, the AP noted.
Photo: Multiple vehicles were partly submerged by the floodwaters Tuesday and Wednesday. (WTVC via AP)
Kinder Morgan says on its website that, should it receive approval, construction would begin at the end of 2027 and the pipeline would begin service in November 2028. The company says the project would cost $1.7 billion and create 750 temporary jobs as well as 15 permanent positions.
The project would also include new compressor stations in Humphreys, Attala and Lauderdale counties, although exact locations haven’t been set.
Singleton Schreiber, a national law firm that focuses on environmental justice, is looking to spread awareness of the public’s ability to participate in the approval process, whether or not they support the proposal.
“We’re just trying to raise awareness to make sure that people know this is happening,” said Laura Singleton, an attorney with the firm. “They’re going to have to dig and construct new pipelines, so it’s going to pass through sensitive ecosystems like wetlands, private property, farmland, things like that. So you can have issues that come up like soil degradation, water contamination, and then after the pipeline is built you could potentially have leaks, spills.”