Mayor Andy Berke, Police Chief David Roddy, and a slew of other public figures held a 1:00 press conference, and the mayor’s message was clear.
“Stay away from this area. Don’t come out here,” said the mayor. “Don’t come to take pictures, don’t come to see what the damage is. Do not come to this area. You are impeding the work that people need to do to keep people safe.”
“I know you may want to come to help out your friend, and that’s a great instinct. Or that you may want to come to make sure your friend has what he or she needs, and that’s terrific. Don’t come out here.”
He said that even if people are just attempting to assist their friends, these purportedly helpful efforts could actually do far more harm than good.
“Let us get our work done first. That is really important,” said Mayor Berke. “Every time you are out here making the traffic worse and being in areas that stop our personnel from maneuvering, you are doing more harm than good. So stay away.”
Chief Roddy had an almost identical message. Because many of these places are still without power, a high volume of traffic could lead to disaster.
“There are a number of intersections where the traffic lights do not work,” said Chief Roddy. “The more cars that come into those intersections, the greater chance we have of another tragedy occurring. The more cars that park on the roadways, the harder it is for the public work trucks, the fire trucks, and the police cars to get through to continue doing what they’re doing.”
“Give your law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs, and public works officials an ability to finish the critical task of figuring out 'Do we have any more injured?' Hopefully not, but do we have any more deaths? But for everything that comes in, it detracts from our ability to get in and do what is absolutely critical.”
Mayor Berke asked for people to stay away from the area for the next 24 hours, which would give essential workers much-needed time to help the devastated areas in East Brainerd.
“Try to do whatever you can to wait until tomorrow, where we have things more clear,” said the mayor. “I can tell you public works and the fire department are making a tremendous amount of progress, so let them do their job.”
Chief Roddy said that starting at 8 p.m. and going until 8 a.m., there would be an access enforcement program. He again asked Chattanoogans to stay away from the area.
Through the vantage point of a helicopter, the mayor was able to see the tornado’s path. He said it was about four miles of consistent damage, and described it as devastating. However, he also spotlighted the great work he saw workers and law enforcement doing right after the storm.
“Frequently they’ve been stopping in their vehicles, getting out and bushwhacking to wherever the people are up to a few miles away because they just can’t get there with vehicles,” said Mayor Berke. “They’ve been chain-sawing, pushing things out of the way, climbing over things, whatever they need to do to get to these areas.”