A Chattanooga couple had a harrowing experience at a Middle Tennessee camp as floodwaters rapidly rose early Saturday morning.
Finley and Lori Knowles have operated the Camp Garner Creek Christian Camp and Conference Center since August 2018.
Ms. Knowles said they were asleep until 5:37 a.m. when they were awakened by sounds of a fierce storm. They soon found that water was coming into the Mitchell Tabernacle "at a spot where it had never come in before."
She said the rising water went up and over a retaining wall at a hillside near the tabernacle, and the wall collapsed in several places.
Ms. Knowles said she stood on higher ground while her husband went to check on the dining hall, which was taking in water.
Finley Knowles, who is a son of County Clerk Bill Knowles, said he inspected the dining hall and was able to get out before too much water had come in. However, the camp chef, Rusty Hertzler, became trapped inside when he was no longer able to open doors because of the force of the water. Mr. Hertzler made his way to an upstairs portion of the dining hall.
Meanwhile, a missionary couple who had been staying along Garner Creek felt the brunt of the rushing water. Mr. Knowles said the man wound up a couple of hundred yards downstream where he was able to get up in a tree. The woman got up on their RV to try to escape the water, then she got over into a tree herself.
Mr. Knowles said he called for help for the stranded chef and missionary couple, but there were so many emergencies that it was some time before anyone was able to arrive. The three people who were stranded were not rescued until four and a half hours later.
He said there had been a mudslide on the road leading to the camp so a crew with a boat and engine were blocked. He said the rescue crew, with help from many of those who had been staying at the conference center, lifted the boat up and over the mud and carried it to where the three were stranded.
The rescuers were able to get the chef to safety after an upstairs window was broken out.
They rescued the woman missionary, though it required her having to jump into the boat, and also saved the man from the tree he had been clinging to for so long.
Throughout the ordeal the couple had not known what had happened to the other. In the end, they had a joyous reunion.
Mr. Knowles said the camp, which is connected with the Nazarene Church, suffered millions of dollars in damages.
That included the loss of a 40-foot container that held emergency supplies and equipment. He said he was amazed to learn that the bulky container had wound up miles from the camp.
He said the camp had some damage during the 2010 flood that overwhelmed Nashville. Then it suffered $650,000 in damage in a localized flood not long after he arrived at the camp. He said there was no federal help or insurance to cover that loss.
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August 23, 2021 at 10:41PM
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Chattanooga Couple Had Harrowing Experience At Middle Tennessee Camp As Floodwaters Rose - The Chattanoogan
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