SOUTH WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) — The sound of chainsaws filled the air as volunteers — unsolicited and “unauthorized” — removed detritus from the deck of Jackson Bridge in Tennessee on Saturday morning.
They were men and women from south of the Nolichucky River, and their neighbors for miles were stranded after massive flooding from Hurricane Helene had wiped out some bridges and made others, including Jackson, impassable.
Volunteers drove tractors, skid steers, and other personal equipment up and down Jackson Bridge Road for more than a half-mile behind them.
“We’ve been here all morning pushing mud, cutting trees and moving things out,” nearby resident Steven Beckett told NewsNation affiliate WJHL.
The volunteers knew people in communities stretching for miles from Embreeville and South Central in Washington County were stranded down into Greene County. Many had no power or water.
“The Kinser Bridge, also known as the 107 Bridge, has collapsed,” Staci Crum, who, with her husband and daughter, had driven east from Greene County to the former Taylor Bridge crossing. “It’s completely gone. And then the other bridge for us to get out, we call it Massengill Bridge or Ernest Bridge; it’s underwater and impassable as well.”
The Crums were without power and water.
“Right now, we know nothing. We know we’re landlocked,” Staci Crum said as her husband looked at the wide stretch of river where Taylor Bridge had been pummeled into oblivion by the raging waters less than 18 hours earlier.
“I’m a diabetic, I’m low on pen needles,” Tracy Penley, who lives near Taylor Bridge, said. “That’s the biggest reason, to be honest with you, I’m even out. I’ve got like half a box left, which is about a week’s worth.”
It was for people like Penley that Beckett and others were getting sweaty and dirty as water continued to rise at the edges of Jackson Bridge Road.
“The community got together and decided we’re gonna clear the bridge because we didn’t see any activity real early,” Beckett said.
Later in the morning, those volunteer teams spotted Washington County Highway Department workers across the river, working to clear the road on the other side.
“We’re all working to meet in the middle, if you will,” Beckett said as a Cat with a claw tool grabbed a massive log, crawled to the edge of the bridge, and dropped it into the water below.
The bridge was rebuilt several years ago, Beckett said, and had to stay low to the water because of a Native American burial ground nearby.
“I believe a lot of the trees and things that were floating were floating above the bridge and actually saved it,” Beckett said. “It’s one of the ones that made it.”
By 1:30, crews had the bridge deck clear and roads on both sides, making it relatively passable. Foot traffic and high-priority vehicle traffic were allowed. The community effort didn’t escape Washington County Mayor Joe Grandy’s notice.
“I just want to say how impressed everyone has been with the support from the community trying to help the people that were stranded on the other side of the Nolichucky River,” Grandy said at a Sunday morning news conference.
He later told WJHL that another group had cleared an even longer stretch of Snapp Bridge Road from the river’s south side. By mid-afternoon Sunday, two-way traffic was allowed on both of the small bridges.
Fewer than a third of the 13 bridges spanning the Nolichucky between Taylor Bridge and Poplar Bridge southwest of Greeneville were passable as of Sunday afternoon. Several had been completely destroyed.