Parents, child killed as 6 inches of rain flood Chattanooga

A mother, father and child were killed when a tree fell on their car during heavy rain and flooding in Tennessee, an official said Wednesday.

The three were killed when saturated ground caused a large tree to fall in the Chattanooga suburb of East Ridge, the Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management said.

A search was also ongoing Wednesday for a man who walked through a flooded road in Chattanooga on Tuesday night but hadn’t been seen since.

The flooding prompted rescues of people stuck in homes and swamped vehicles on Tuesday, and the region was bracing for more rainfall and flooding Wednesday. Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp declared a local state of emergency Tuesday night. 

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of middle Tennessee through Wednesday night, warning of scattered flash flooding with tropical-like heavy rainfall and the possibility of training storms, especially over already saturated areas.

The airport in Chattanooga recorded more than 6.4 inches of rain Tuesday, marking the second-wettest day recorded for the city dating back to 1879, according to a social media post by the National Weather Service in Morristown. The highest single-day total was nearly 9.5 inches in September 2011 from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, the weather service said.