Flash Flood — Hamilton, Tennessee

2025-08-12 · near Worley, Hamilton, Tennessee

Event narrative

Standing water was estimated to be 3 feet deep near Shallowford and Gunbarrel roads, with with water going over the hood of a truck. Additionally, someone drove around police barricades and into flood waters on nearby East Brainard Road before being swept away. Unfortunately this resulted in a fatality.

Wider weather episode

A weak upper low helped advect near record moisture into Tennessee, where a boundary and classic heavy rain profiles combined to produce extreme rainfall rates over portions of Chattanooga, leading to numerous water rescues, a few evacuations, flooded interstate and local roads, flooded homes, and unfortunately a few fatalities. One fatality occurred in the east Brainerd area after a driver went around police barricades and was swept away in the flood waters. Damage estimates as of September 2025 were at least $1.7 million dollars per emergency management.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.0431, -85.1527)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1287783. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.