A Memphis domestic violence agency has abruptly closed its doors amidst an urgent fight for state funding by victim-serving organizations in Tennessee.
The Family Safety Center of Memphis and Shelby County shut down without warning or public explanation last week.
The agency served as a “one-stop shop” for victims of domestic violence, aiding victims in obtaining orders of protection in coordination with police and the District Attorney’s office, and connecting families to housing, food and other resources.
Its sudden closure has left the web of agencies that worked together to address domestic violence scrambling, said Marqulepta Odom, executive director of the YWCA Greater Memphis.
“We were all caught off guard by its closing in the middle of the week like that,” said Odom, whose agency operates a 78-bed domestic violence shelter, the largest in the state.
Odom said the closure will have a “great impact and a loss for our community for sure. It was that central place that survivors and victims knew where to go.”
But Odom’s agency — like victim-serving agencies across Tennessee this year — also faces an uncertain funding future: federal funding for victims of crime in Tennessee has dwindled in recent years from a peak of $68 million in 2018 to $16 million last year.
The YWCA Greater Memphis experienced a 17 percent cut last year as a result and faces the prospect of crippling budget cuts this year if it cannot find a way to replace the lost federal dollars.
Agencies that operate crisis hotlines, provide counseling to child abuse victims, conduct sexual assault exams and operate shelters are facing additional cuts in federal funding up to 40 percent more come July.
Those ongoing cuts in federal dollars had already hit the Family Safety Center hard before it closed its doors.
The agency received $742,000 in federal crime victim funding in 2020, according to the Tennessee Office of Criminal Justice Programs (OCJP), which distributes the federal funding to Tennessee nonprofits. This year, that funding had dwindled to about $132,000.
The OCJP got notice March 6 that the Family Safety Center had shuttered the previous day. Ethel Hilliard, the center’s executive director, “stated that the closure was due to a board decision related to financial issues,” a spokesperson for the OCJP said.
The most recent available tax records show the agency operated at a deficit in 2021 and 2022, when it reported a $289,000 deficit. Like other agencies funded through the federal Victims of Crimes Act, it faced steep cuts again in July.
And while 35 other states have taken action to provide their own state funding in the face of federal crime victim budget cuts, Tennessee is not one of them.
Stephen Woerner, executive director of Tennessee Children’s Advocacy Centers, said the Memphis agency’s closure illustrates the vulnerability of agencies that aid victims of abuse.
“I do not know the details of why they closed, but it speaks to the fragility of the victim serving community, particularly those that have not truly invested in diversifying their funding,” Woerner said.
Woerner’s organization operates 46 centers across the state that employ specialized counselors who work with children who have been abused, neglected or sexually assaulted. The organization received $5.5 million annually from the federal crime victims fund at its peak; this year, it received $2.1 million, he said.
Woerner is among hundreds of advocates across the state who are pressing Gov. Bill Lee to include $25 million in recurring state funding to crime victim agencies in the state’s budget.
Thus far, Lee has not committed. Lee’s office did not respond to a question about the funding on Friday.
Leaders of the Family Safety Center in Memphis have made no public statements about the reasons behind the closure and Ethele Hilliard, executive director, did not respond to emailed questions from the Lookout.
Tennessee Lookoutis part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
“The state cannot tell me how to operate my church,” said Rev. Kevin Riggs, pastor of Franklin Community Church. (Photo: John Partipilo)
A pair of bills by Republicans lawmakers that would penalize charitable organizations that serve immigrants — and potentially lead to their employees’ arrests — are drawing pushback from Tennessee faith leaders as an infringement on their religious freedom.
One bill (HB322/SB392) would create a new “human smuggling” crime for those who transport, encourage or induce 10 or more adults to illegally enter or remain in the state by “concealing, harboring or shielding” them.
Organizations, including churches and other nonprofits, that commit or are “about to commit” the offense could be dissolved by the Tennessee Attorney General. And individuals who participate in inducing or encouraging activities — such as church staff, nonprofit employees or private company workers — could be subject to a Class E felony, punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $3,000.
A second bill (HB811/SB227) would open up charitable organizations to lawsuits if they have provided housing services to an individual without permanent legal immigration status and then that individual goes on to commit a crime.
Both measures could directly impact the routine charitable programs Tennessee churches and other nonprofits provide to individuals regardless of their immigration status, faith leaders said.
“I’m deeply concerned about how broad these bills are, and my fear is that any church that is seeking to help any immigrant could be penalized in some way,” said The Rev. Eric Mayle, pastor of Edgehill United Methodist Church in Nashville.
“And that prevents us from exercising our religious freedom to care for the vulnerable or stranger in our midst who we are commanded by Christ to care for,” he said.
State Senator Brent Taylor (R) Memphis district 31 Shelby County, during the 113th general Assembly
Photograph by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout
Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), who is the chief sponsor of the bill aimed at housing services and a cosponsor of the human smuggling legislation, said both bills are designed to hold non-governmental agencies, or NGOs, accountable for their roles in providing services that keep immigrants without legal status in Tennessee communities.
The bills are not intended to interfere with the charitable work of faith based groups, such as those that provide temporary shelters or English as a Second Language programs, as his own church offers, he said.
Even heaven has an immigration policy.
Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis)
“I would remind the churches that even heaven has an immigration policy,” Taylor said. “You can’t climb over the wall in heaven. You can’t slick talk St. Peter into the gates of heaven. There’s a very specific way you come into heaven to become a resident of heaven. They’ve got a very strict immigration policy, and I don’t think its unreasonable for Americans to have an immigration policy that people follow.”
The bills are among an unprecedented slate of immigration-related legislation filed in the Tennessee Legislature this year. More than three dozen bills have been filed to restrict immigrants’ access to public services, including K-12 schools, or penalize those who aid them.
A sweeping measure signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday offers to significantly ramp up state involvement in immigration enforcement in collaboration with the Trump Administration.
The measure creates a new state enforcement office, provides grants as incentives for local law enforcement to take on immigrant enforcement duties, creates distinct drivers licenses for noncitizens and makes it a felony for public officials to back sanctuary policies. The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee pledged to bring a legal challenge to the law.
New ‘human smuggling’ offense
The proposal to create a new “human smuggling” offense would create a felony for knowingly transporting at least 10 adults or 5 children who lack permanent legal immigration status “for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain.” The felony also applies to individuals who encourage or induce 10 or more adults or five or more children to “enter or remain” in Tennessee by “concealing, harboring, or shielding those persons from detection.”
The bill, Taylor and Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) also creates a second misdemeanor offense for those who “harbor or hide, or assist another in harboring or hiding” individuals they know or should have known have illegally entered the United States. The misdemeanor comes with a $1,000 penalty attached to each individual who was concealed, harbored or shielded.
Taylor referred questions about the granular details of the bill to Barrett, its chief sponsor, who did not respond to messages seeking comment about the bill on Friday.
Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, noted the felony offense could broadly apply to construction site employees driven by van to worksites or nonprofits providing adults and children bus passes as part of their services.
The use of the word “encourage” to define the proposed new crime creates an added layer of vagueness to the bill, Luna said.
“By providing people food maybe you’re encouraging people to stay?” Luna said. “The point is they don’t define ‘encourages.’
The broad nature of the language could apply to nonprofit legal services providers that provide legal advice, food banks that distribute goods, churches that offer community services, immigrant-serving nonprofits that educate individuals about their rights, Luna noted.
‘The state cannot tell me how to operate my church’
Pastor Kevin Riggs of Franklin Community Church said he is concerned the bill to penalize organizations that provide housing assistance would have a direct impact on his church.
Riggs’ church helps low-income individuals access housing programs, funded through a federal Housing and Urban Development program whose rules are at odds with the bill being proposed.
If there’s a person in front of us who has got need, we’re going to meet the need.
– Rev. Kevin Riggs, Franklin Community Church
“It would affect the work, Riggs said. “It’s put us in a bind, because you got the state telling you, you have to do one thing, and you have the federal government telling you, you can’t do that.” Regardless of whether the bill ultimately becomes law, Riggs said his church would not veer from its Christian mission to help those in need. “The state cannot tell me how to operate my church,” Riggs said.
“If there’s a person in front of us who has got need, we’re going to meet the need,” he said. “That’s part of our church’s mission, and for the state to tell us we cannot is a violation of our First Amendment rights to practice our religions in the way I believe we have been called.”
Taylor, in an interview with the Lookout, said his intent was for the bill to apply only to long-term housing services provided by charitable organizations in Tennessee communities. While the language of the bill filed does not specify long term housing, Taylor said he would review the bill to possibly amend it.
“I’m not envisioning a homeless shelter,” he said. “What I envision is an NGO assisting them finding a longterm rental in a house or apartment, not an overnight stay in a homeless shelter. No one is trying to prevent illegal immigrants from seeking shelter on a cold winter night or from rain storm.”
Nonprofits a new front in immigration enforcement
Churches, faith-based and other nonprofit organizations that work with individuals regardless of their immigration status are increasingly becoming targets of Republican-led efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration, according to Kristen Etter, director of policy and services at the Texas Immigration Law Council.
On Wednesday, Congressional republicans sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding an investigation into non-governmental agencies receiving public funding to work with immigrant populations. The letter, without evidence, accused nonprofit agencies of “knowingly assisting criminal aliens violating our immigration laws” and “operating a human smuggling campaign on the backs of U.S. taxpayers.”
Last month, influential conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation listed as its No. 1 immigration-related policy goal to repurpose public funding from immigrant-serving nonprofits – whom they accused of “facilitating the border crisis” – to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As one of his first executive orders after taking office, President Donald Trump called on the U.S. Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the funding of immigrant-serving nonprofits.
And in Texas, ongoing lawsuits are challenging Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to issue investigative demands to immigrant-serving organizations he has accused of facilitating illegal immigration, among them: Catholic Charities Rio Grande Valley and Annunciation House, a Catholic organization. The organizations have argued in court that Paxton’s efforts violate their First Amendment right to free speech, association and religion.
“They want to criminalize all organizations that work with immigrants,” Etter said.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
Delta-8 flower on display at The Perfect Plant in Nashville. Legal Delta-8 flower is nearly indistinguishable from marijuana.(Photo: John Partipilo)
The sale of popular hemp products will remain legal in Tennessee until at least June, when a legal challenge to state rules that would outlaw many best-selling products goes to trial in Nashville.
The decision represents a six-month reprieve for Tennessee’s burgeoning hemp industry, which has grown to an estimated $280 million to $560 million in annual sales since the products were legalized nearly six years ago, according to industry survey data.
In dispute are rules, formulated by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, to require new testing of hemp products for so-called delta-9 THC.
Two industry groups, the Tennessee Growers Coalition and the Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association, argued the rules, set to go into effect Dec. 26, represented agency overreach and would lead to the ban of products that have not been outlawed by the Tennessee General Assembly.
State attorneys argued the agriculture agency is well within its rights to set certain limits on chemicals found in hemp.
Days before the rules were set to take effect, Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles issued a temporary injunction until Feb. 18. That injunction will now remain in effect until trial, scheduled for June 5.
Hemp is a cannabis plant that has been legally available in Tennessee since the Legislature first approved its production, possession and sale in 2019.
It’s distinguished from marijuana by its concentration of a compound known as delta-9 THC. Cannabis with a concentration of less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC is defined as legal hemp in Tennessee — and federally. Cannabis with concentrations greater than .3 percent is classified as marijuana and is illegal to grow, sell or possess in Tennessee.
Hemp flowers also contain THCA, a nonintoxicating acid that has not been outlawed in Tennessee. When heated or smoked, however, the THCA in the plant converts into delta-9 THC — an illegal substance in Tennessee when it is present in greater than trace amounts. The new rules would require testing for the delta-9 THC produced when THCA is heated.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
A federal appeals panel on Tuesday heard arguments in a case to determine the future of Tennessee voter registration policies that — by some estimates — have disenfranchised half a million state residents with past felony convictions.
A class action lawsuit, filed in 2020 by the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP and five voters, accuses state officials of establishing byzantine, inequitable, and onerous procedures that effectively prevent qualified voters with past convictions from casting a ballot in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
A federal judge in Nashville temporarily blocked the state rules in April, but the state successfully appealed to keep them in place ahead of the November 2024 elections while litigation continued.
On Tuesday, an attorney representing the Tennessee attorney general defended state voting right restoration rules before a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as a lawful exercise of state power and argued the NAACP lacked the legal right to challenge the rules on behalf of voters.
“The NVRA ensures eligible applicants can register to vote but it also exists to protect the integrity of the election process,” said Philip Hammersley, assistant solicitor general. “Tennessee’s [restoration] policy furthers both aims by providing election officials what they need to distinguish between felons who are eligible to vote and those who are not.”
Hammersley focused much of the state’s arguments in disputing the NAACP had legal standing to file suit at all.
The Tennessee civil rights organization, Hammersley argued, was too “attenuated” — or removed from direct harm by state rules that apply to individuals seeking to restore their voting rights — to have standing to sue.
“NAACP would have to show [state] policy coerced or forced individuals to go to the NAACP and enlist their help, and that is simply not what is happening here,” Hammersley said. “There are many different voluntary steps that those individuals take before the NAACP gets involved.”
“Tennessee NAACP is in the business of registering voters,” she said. “It has been in the business of registering voters for all of its storied history, and it will continue to be in the business of registering voters regardless of Tennessee’s actions.
“And when you make it harder to register voters, you make it harder for groups that are in the business of registering voters,” said Lang, senior director of voting rights for the Campaign Legal Center.
Under state law, individuals who have completed their sentences for felony convictions have pathways to regain their voting rights.
They can either obtain a pardon from the governor or petition a judge. The process also requires proof that all court fines and fees have been paid. Fewer than 1 percent of applicants succeed in obtaining court relief and fewer than 3 percent obtain clemency.
In addition, applicants have to legally regain their ability to carry a weapon.
Overall, nearly 10 percent of the Tennessee electorate — 470,000 people — have lost their right to vote due to past felony convictions, including one in five Black residents of voting age.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
CBD and Delta-8 products on a shelf at Cumberland Cannabis (Photo: John Partipilo)
Tennessee’s hemp industry is making a last-ditch legal effort to halt sweeping new rules that would ban the sale of popular hemp products legally available in the state since 2019.
Attorneys representing Tennessee hemp retailers and producer associations are expected in a Nashville court Monday just ahead of new state product testing rules scheduled to take effect Dec. 26.
The rules would bar the manufacture, distribution and sale of many of the best-selling hemp products that have helped drive a nascent state industry to generate $280-$560 million in sales annually, based on survey data cited in legal documents.
The hemp products haven’t been outlawed by the Tennessee legislature or the federal government.
Rather, new legislation designed to impose first-time regulations on Tennessee’s five-year-old hemp industry –—such as license requirements, taxes, and age restrictions — have been interpreted by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture in a way that would render certain hemp products illegal.
The rules require products to be tested for the first time for so-called TCHA content, a naturally occurring and still-legal substance found in all hemp plants. When hemp flowers are heated or smoked, the substance converts to THC — an illegal substance in Tennessee when it is present in greater than trace amounts.
The Tennessee Growers Association and the Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association are seeking a temporary injunction they say is necessary to prevent widespread devastation to the burgeoning industry.
Should the new rules go into effect, “a large share of Tennessee’s hemp-derived cannabinoid market will be rendered illegal overnight, shuttering many businesses and forcing downsizing and layoffs at others,” legal filings by the Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association read.
Hemp is a cannabis plant that has been legally available in Tennessee since the Legislature first approved its production, possession, and sale in 2019.
It’s distinguished from marijuana by its concentration of a compound known as delta-9 THC. Cannabis with a concentration of less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC is defined as legal hemp in Tennessee — and federally. Cannabis with concentrations greater than .3 percent is classified as marijuana and is illegal to grow, sell, or possess in Tennessee.
Hemp flowers also contain THCA, a nonintoxicating acid that has not been outlawed in Tennessee. When heated or smoked, however, the THCA in the plant converts into delta-9 THC.
The state product testing rules unveiled by Tennessee’s agriculture department earlier this year will now make THCA products illegal based on their combined concentration of delta-9 THC and THCA, rather than solely their delta-9 THC concentration.
A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, which rejected hemp industry administrative appeals of the rules, declined to comment Tuesday on pending legislation.
Both industry groups argue the state’s agriculture department exceeded its authority in formulating the rules, essentially outlawing a product the legislature has determined to be legal.
“Here, it blinks reality to conclude that the General Assembly — in the very statute that expressly defines (THCA) as a legal hemp-derived cannabinoid without any concentration limits — delegated to the Department a clandestine power to outlaw (THCA) products that have been legally sold in Tennessee for years,” legal filings said.
The Tennessee Growers Association has also put forth a separate legal argument that the 2023 law intended to regulate “hemp-derived products” does apply to the unadulterated hemp plant itself.
“Hemp and raw flowers are not HDC’s (hemp derivative products),” the Tennessee Growers Coalition argued. “After all, hemp cannot be ‘derived’ from itself.”
The groups are seeking an immediate preliminary injunction in Davidson County Chancery Court to prevent the rules from taking effect.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is proposing a $3 million pilot project to test sewage from Knoxville-area high schools, college dorms, and other locations for illicit drugs, Director David Rausch said Tuesday.
If the budget for the project is approved, testing will initially begin on wastewater from 12 public high schools and 16 college dorms. Another 120 Knoxville locations could be selected for wastewater testing at the TBI’s discretion, Rausch said. The pilot would run for 30 weeks.
The testing is intended to identify specific illicit drugs and the concentration of drug use in a particular location using a key surveillance tool deployed during the Covid pandemic to monitor disease prevalence.
Results of school and dorm-based wastewater testing, Rausch said, can help keep parents and school administrators informed about student drug use.
“That becomes a great piece for those administrators at the school to be able to educate parents and make them aware this is an issue,” Rausch said in presenting the proposal to Gov. Bill Lee as part of his agency’s overall request for a $21 million budget increase next year.
“It also then becomes an educational tool for us to be able to educate the community on these drugs that are being used there.”
The testing would also have law enforcement uses, said Rausch, noting the surveillance — which would be done by an outside contractor — can pinpoint the source of illicit drugs “as close as a block as (to) where that issues.”
“If we have an area with a lot of drug complaints, we can have them test the water in that area,” Rausch said. “They wouldn’t be able to tell me the exact house, but they could tell me a selection of four houses. And then our work on intel and observation, we would be able to tell where the house is.”
Testing sewage for illicit drug use is underway in 70 U.S. cities as part of a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded program intended to help guide cities in where they need to focus resources in preventing overdose deaths.
Unlike the TBI proposal, the Institute-funded testing is done in conjunction with local public health departments, not law enforcement.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for Dec. 4th in the case challenging Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors brought by three young people and their families.
The state law — which took effect on July 1st of last year — bars Tennessee doctors and nurses from providing medical care — including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries — to transgender people under 18.
Tennessee Republican lawmakers made passing the law their top priority during last year’s legislative session, giving it the honorary title of House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal and the private law firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, sued to stop the ban from going into effect on behalf of a 16-year-old transgender girl, who received puberty blockers and estrogen therapy; a 13-year-old transgender boy, who received puberty blockers; and a 16-year-old transgender boy, who received puberty blockers and testosterone therapy, along with their parents and a doctor who treats transgender patients.
A federal court in Tennessee initially blocked the law in April. But the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled that decision last year, allowing the law to go into effect while the Biden Administration appealed.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
Ford BlueOval City, photographed while under construction in April 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Tennessee lawmakers are revisiting plans to roll back state regulations that protect nearly half a million acres of Tennessee wetlands from development.
For months, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has elicited feedback from developers and conservation groups, at odds over state wetland policy, in order to achieve consensus.
Thursday’s meeting of the Senate Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee demonstrated how little agreement has been achieved thus far.
Allowing unchecked development on Tennessee’s wetlands — which serve to absorb floodwaters and replenish aquifers — could lead to flooding that will cost taxpayers “millions and millions of dollars down the road,” David Salyers, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), told lawmakers.
“There’s about seven million Tennesseans that hope we get this right,” Salyers said “There are future generations that depend on us to get this right.”
Salyer’s agency has proposed doubling the area of wetlands that can be developed without a state permit from a quarter-acre to half an acre. The agency has also proposed reducing costly payments from developers tied to the area of wetlands they propose to disturb. And it has proposed streamlining red tape.
TDEC’s recommendations followed the efforts earlier this year by Collierville Republican Kevin Vaughan, to significantly roll back wetland protections. Vaughan’s bill ultimately failed, but could be revived when the legislature reconvenes in January.
Developers who testified Thursday criticized TDEC recommendations for not going far enough to remove onerous hurdles that drive up project timelines and increase costs.
“We’re not looking at a broad redo of wetlands across the state…we’re not looking to damage the hunting lands that are out there. We’re not looking to create floods,” said Keith Grant, a West Tennessee developer, who noted that Tennessee currently has stricter protections over small and isolated wetlands than 24 states and the federal government.
“Why would Tennessee be more stringent in regulating wetlands than our federal government when regulation lowers property owners values and increases housing costs for tax paying citizens of Tennessee?” he said.
Conservationists, however, noted the increase in frequency of drought and flooding Tennessee has experienced in recent years, making the natural safeguards that wetlands provide even more vital.
“This is not the right time to turbocharge the hardening of our landscapes, but if we remove our wetlands protections that is exactly what will happen,” said George Nolan, director of the Tennessee office of the Southern Environmental Law Center.
There is no action expected on state wetlands policy until the Legislature reconvenes in January.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is releasing water from tributary dams like Douglas Dam, shown here, in Sevier County. The controlled release is intended to minimize additional flooding. (Photo: Tennessee Valley Authority)
A map from the Tennessee Department of Transportation shows road closures and compromised bridges in East Tennessee.
Four days after Hurricane Helene unleashed devastation across parts of rural East Tennessee, emergency officials are switching from rescue to recovery operations.
Scores of people are still reported missing — a number that has shifted up and down since Saturday — underscoring the immense challenges in accounting for residents in areas with no power, impassable roads, and limited cell service.
As of Monday night, 102 were missing in four counties, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), which stressed that the missing may include those cut off from roads and cell coverage. State officials confirmed at least six Tennessee weather-related deaths thus far, according to TEMA. They include three in Unicoi County, and one person in each of the following counties: Knox, Johnson, and Washington.
Thousands of homes and businesses remain without power, and hundreds of roads and bridges can’t be traveled, including nearly every road linking Tennessee to North Carolina. There is no official toll yet on the number of homes and businesses damaged or destroyed. At least four wastewater treatment plants have been thrown offline due to flooding and water utilities in six counties have reported “operational issues,” according to TEMA.
“Search and damage assessments are ongoing and we’re beginning to be able to start to put the pieces back together,” said Myron Hughes, a public information officer for TEMA’s All-Hazards Incident Management Team.
Hotline to coordinate missing person reports: 800-824-3463
Hughes briefed reporters Monday, alongside public officials in hard-hit Unicoi County, where a dramatic and ultimately successful rescue operation unfolded Friday morning to airlift more than 60 staff and patients stranded on the rooftop of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin.
Unicoi County Emergency Management Director and Incident Commander Jim Erwin said personnel were conducting searches Monday, a task he expected to be complete in impacted areas by day’s end.
Meanwhile, residents and emergency crews continue to grapple with the damage left behind by high winds, rainfall and flooding in hard-hit counties, including Unicoi, Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Sevier, and Washington.
At Monday’s Unicoi County press conference, an unidentified man, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter, pressed emergency responders for answers about why his still-missing wife wasn’t rescued as she and co-workers tried to flee rising waters Friday morning outside their workplace, Impact Plastics.
The 911 call system swas inundated and many of the county’s resources were deployed to Unicoi County Hospital, Erwin responded, and noted he was also at the hospital. A crew rescued four people fleeing Industrial Park, where the plastics factory was located, Erwin said, then had to turn back.
“They did not get further because water was already so high,” he said. “Some people were saved and we’re still searching. … We all have hopes that we will find some more alive. Our hearts are deep and we’ll be here to work with families.”
Gov. Bill Lee’s request for a Major Disaster Declaration was approved by the Biden Administration Saturday, activating Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) assistance in 12 Tennessee counties.
The Tennessee National Guard and first responders from outside the disaster region were dispatched to assist in search and recovery efforts.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation established a hotline number to coordinate reports of missing persons: The number is 800-824-3463.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is releasing water from tributary dams like Douglas Dam, shown here, in Sevier County. The controlled release is intended to minimize additional flooding. (Photo: Tennessee Valley Authority)
Roads and bridges
In the first 36 hours following the disaster, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) assessed damages and inspected 100 bridges across seven counties.
“We still have hundreds to go,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Monday.
More than 300 TDOT employees have joined in the inspection efforts, but the task ahead will surpass the capacity of the state agency.
TDOT is in the process of awarding multiple debris removal and construction contracts to supplement state crews, with contracted work expected to begin later this week.
Dams and Rivers
Over the weekend, reports of imminent dam collapses led to evacuations in some areas. But on Monday a spokesperson for the Tennessee Valley Authority confirmed that all 49 of its dams are “stable and operating as designed.”
“We are assessing any transmission infrastructure impacts, which are minimal on the TVA system,” Scott Brooks, an agency spokesperson, said in an email.
Right now, they’re asking for water and people from all over are bringing water to us. Budweiser just brought an entire tractor-trailer full. … Rep. Dan Howell from Cleveland is sending water from his district. When you’ve got 37,000 people and no water, we’re so grateful for everybody doing that.
– Rep. Jeremy Faison, Cocke County Republican
Brooks said most of the damage is on local utility systems. TVA is working with local power companies on restoration and repairs, he said.
State Rep. Jeremy Faison, a Republican who represents hard-hit Cocke County, said thousands are without water after utilities were knocked offline. “So, literally, unless you’re on a well, you have no water in my county right now,” he said.
“Right now, they’re asking for water and people from all over are bringing water to us,” he said. “Budweiser just brought an entire tractor-trailer full. … Rep. Dan Howell from Cleveland is sending water from his district. When you’ve got 37,000 people and no water, we’re so grateful for everybody doing that.”
TVA is monitoring extensive flooding in its tributary dams, which control water movement throughout the power provider’s system. The extensive flooding in reservoirs has prompted record high releases at places, including Douglas Dam in Sevier county.
“We are aware these record releases are causing localized flooding on the Tennessee River,” Brooks said.
River levels monitored by TVA illustrated the enormity of rising water in the region. The French Broad River in Newport, Tenn, reached 23 feet — 13 feet above flood stage. The Pigeon River, also in Newport, set a new record stage of 28.9 feet, 20.9 feet over flood stage. And the Nolichucky River at the Nolichucky Dam in Greene County also recorded record high levels of water.
Senior reporter Sam Stockard contributed to this report.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
A federal judge has dismissed a legal challenge to Tennessee’s so-called “bathroom law,” leaving in place rules that require public schools to bar transgender students from the gendered bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice.
The decision by U.S. District Judge William Campbell keeps in effect the “Tennessee Accommodations for All Children Act,” signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee in 2021.
The law requires schools to offer “reasonable accommodation” to transgender students and school staff, but specifically excludes access to a multi-use restrooms or changing facilities.
It says students and staff must make formal requests for accommodation, such as to use a standalone restroom, and a principal must approve or deny the request in writing. And it gives parents and teachers the right to sue a school district for monetary damages if transgender students use a restroom or locker room that doesn’t conform with their gender at birth.
Critics have said the law discriminates against transgender kids and school employees, and forces individuals to out themselves to their peers.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization that served as legal counsel in the lawsuit, has not announced whether it plans to appeal the ruling, a spokesperson said Thursday.
Eli Givens, a college sophomore and LGBTQ advocate with the Tennessee Equality Project, who is unconnected to the case, called the ruling “heart wrenching” and “terrifying” for trans kids and their parents.
“I had to miss out on classes frequently because I had to go to a bathroom on the other side of school,” said Givens, who came out as trans at age 11. “What do you do in a bathroom? You go in, use the restroom, wash your hands, and you leave.”
Parents of a third grade transgender student in Williamson County Schools first filed the legal challenge in 2022, arguing the law violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded programs.
Their child, who had been living as a girl since age six, was denied access to multi-occupancy restrooms and directed to a separate and unsanitary standalone restroom at a distance from her classroom.
The insistence that she use a separate restroom “isolates her and distinguishes her from her classmates and exacerbates the stress and anxiety she experiences while trying to fit in and avoid being stigmatized on the basis of her sex and gender identity,” the lawsuit said.
Campbell had previously shot down efforts by attorneys for Williamson County Schools and state education department to dismiss the lawsuit.
In his subsequent decision, issued September 4th, Campbell noted the legal landscape that has shifted since then.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in separate decisions, has upheld two Tennessee laws aimed at transgender children and adults, including the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, he noted. The appeals court concluded gender identity is not recognized as a protected class. Under that standard set by the appeals court, Campbell said the lawsuit required a different analysis.
“Although Plaintiff identifies as a girl, the act prohibits her from using the facilities that correspond to her gender identity, while students who identify with their biological sex at birth are permitted to use such facilities,” Campbell wrote.
“However, the act and policy do not prefer one sex over the other, bestow benefits or burdens based on sex, or apply one rule for males and another for females,” the decision said.
Federal education officials have separately taken the position that Title IX protects transgender students access to facilities that conform with their gender identity.
In a separate and ongoing legal fight, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is leading a multi-state lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education over its position.
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