A rope rescue at the Pocket Wilderness on Sunday evening
photo by Chief Chris Weddington, Mowbray VFD
Pop-up thunderstorms created a flash flooding incident at the Pocket Wilderness hiking area Sunday evening. Mowbray Volunteer Fire Department was notified at 6 p.m. of a water emergency at the Pocket Wilderness hiking area (290 Montlake Road). The first unit arrived, confirming several people trapped on the other side of the creek. In all, 56 people were rescued and two dogs.
Due to pop-up thunderstorm, all the rain on top of Waldens Ridge, Signal and Soddy Mountain creeks merged together at the Pocket Wilderness.
As a result, this made the creek impassable for visitors to return to their vehicles.
Mowbray Volunteer Fire Department requested a mutual aid response for additional swift-water rescue personnel to respond to the scene and assist with the emergency water efforts. Agencies included were: Dallas Bay VFD, STARS and Chattanooga Fire Department swift-water rescue teams. Additional agencies assisted Mowbray VFD were Soddy Daisy Fire, TN State Parks, HCEMS and Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
Mowbray Fire Chief Chris Weddington said, “We had multiple emergency water operations occurring simultaneously. We had teams searching for possible missing people that had been in the area swimming and we had teams establish rope systems to rescue 56 people and 2 dogs trapped on the other side of the creek.”
These teams worked together and were able to get everyone across safely.
Hamilton County OEM recommends everyone to please monitor the weather in the event of severe thunderstorms occurring during the summer months. Local hiking trails are beautiful to visit with family and friends. However, thunderstorms can create a dangerous situation as well as flash flooding.