LAFOLLETTE, TN  (WLAF) – When crews with the Campbell County Highway Department clocked in to work Friday morning, they had no idea they were starting a 37- hour work day.  It wasn’t until 9 pm Saturday that the seemingly endless Friday came to a close.  But they were right back on the job not long after daybreak on Sunday.

TOP PHOTO:  The river that was flowing down Long Hollow Road on Friday evening.

NEXT PHOTO:  This is the river of water that flowed down Cave Springs Road and over Long Hollow Road where Camp Ridge Road intersects.

“It was two-hours of amazing rainfall on Friday evening, and it pushed us near the point of panic,” said Campbell County Road Superintendent Ron Dilbeck.  Case in point was when Assistant Road Super Tony Malone estimated that at one time three-feet of water was rushing out of control down Long Hollow Road.

Dilbeck describes the area of destruction is in a radius of five to six miles around Long Hollow Road.  That encompasses Ivey Hollow, Old Long Hollow, Cave Springs, Cedar Creek, Pleasant Ridge, Demory, High Knob, Camp Ridge and Cedar Creek.

Dilbeck points to where about 3,000 tons of rock will be put back up next to the road to support it like it did before Friday’s floods.

There is an estimated 30-miles of damage to the roads and ditches from Long Hollow to Demory along with more than 100 mud slides plus 50 downed trees.  Several thousand tons of debris and rock were pushed around by the flooding which damaged six bridges and completely destroyed Crosses Creek Bridge off Carr Wynn Road.

Dilbeck calls Demory through Long Hollow as some of the hardest hit areas.  However, he adds that other areas have significant damage.

“No one was killed or injured, and that’s the best news to come out of all of this,” said Dilbeck.  He thanks all of the residents for their kindness and patience and for those who brought us food and water.  They were so kind and understanding.

Donald Boruff (ABOVE) waits as his son Jason (BELOW) loads his truck with mud from a ditch line along Long Hollow Road on Sunday morning.

Dilbeck expressed his appreciation to the sheriff’s department for its traffic control and help, LUB, the EMA, the Campbell County Rural Fire Service, his friend Mark Mills who just showed up to help, the county commissioners and Senator Ken Yager.  Yager toured the damage with Dilbeck on Saturday afternoon.  “Everybody’s been great,” Dilbeck stated.

Our main goal is to get the roads safe.  Then we’ll work on the roads to the driveways. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 06/10/2019-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF CC ROAD SUPER RON DILBECK)

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