Excessive rains cause flooding, road closures

GIBSON, Tenn. — The Tennessee Department of Transportation had to close some roads this week because of rising waters due to the excessive rainfall.

“We’ve had several roads flooded, but now that the rain stopped they’re slowly starting to clear up,” TDOT Operations District Engineer Cody Roberts said. “Our main concern is whenever a road is covered with water. We get crews out there as quickly as possible to close that road.”

State Route 152 outside Humboldt was closed going both directions, along with other flood-prone roads in Crockett, Carroll and Haywood counties. This meant alternate routes needed to be planned.

If you’re not sure about the road closures in your area, TDOT says to use their SmartWay app for the latest updates on the road closures around you.

“It will have pretty much real-time information,” Roberts said. “As soon as we got a road open, we’re going to update it, or soon as we have a road closed we’ll update it.”

TDOT says road conditions are slowly improving.

“So we are hoping by [Tuesday] afternoon, late tonight or early in the morning these roads will be clear,” Roberts said.

The department says right now less than 10 roads are still closed.

For a link to the interactive map to check road conditions in your area, visit the Seen on 7 section of our website.