TENNESSEE

The latest on Gatlinburg fire, area weather

News Sentinel staff

* The death total from the fire that swept through Sevier County on Monday night has raised to seven, said officials gathered at a 4 p.m. press conference. Great Smoky Mountains National Park Supervisor Cassius Cash said 15,737 acres had been burned.

* Red Cross officials said the population of displaced persons at shelters around Sevier County was down to 300. At the peak, the number of displaced persons in shelters was more than 2,000.

* Portions of Sevier County have received about an inch of rain through the night with the potential for a half-inch more through Wednesday, said Derek Eisentrout, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Morristown. More rain was expected Saturday evening.

* Concern remains about the return of high winds with gusts expected of up to 40 mph through the day Wednesday. Winds of more than 80 mph were mainly to blame for the massive firestorm that went through Sevier County on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

* Firefighters from throughout the country who have been fighting fires in the Southeast for weeks are beginning to go home. A flight of 100 went out Wednesday morning. A second flight of 100 was postponed with firefighters scheduled to fly home on it instead dispersed to help on the Sevier County fires. A few smaller groups of 20 or less were still arriving in the past few days. Celeste Prescott at the mobilization center at McGhee Tyson Airport said 300 have been flown home this week. Crews are limited to 14 days of work, sometimes extended to 21 days if necessary. She said 31 crews from Oregon have been working the fires, the most by a wide margin of any state outside the fire region.

* Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokesman Dean Flener said a husband and wife died and two others were injured in Polk County in Southeast Tennessee from overnight storms on Wednesday.

* Mark Cochran with the McMinn County Sheriff's Office said at least 20 injuries were reported around Athens mainly in the Deerfield Estates area.  A Save-A-Lot grocery store was leveled and other businesses on Highway 30 East in Athens were severely damaged. A tornado touched down overnight and jumped from the Highway 30 area to Deerfield Estates, the National Weather Service reported.

* There were 19 wildfires burning across six southeastern states as of Wednesday morning, the U.S. Forest Service said.

* Across the state line, three people were killed in northeastern Alabama when a suspected tornado hit a mobile home in Jackson County.

* Four children were seriously injured when a 24-hour day care center in Ider, Ala., was leveled about 12:15 a.m. Wednesday. There were no fatalities reported.

* Elsewhere in Tennessee, a storm and possible tornado moved through Tullahoma on Tuesday night. Residents woke to find trees down and rerouted their commutes because of downed power lines making roads impassable. Authorities have not reported any injuries from the storm.

Apartments across the street from Gatlinburg Church of Christ after wildfires mixed with high winds on Monday evening to cause widespread damage in the Gatlinburg area Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016.

* Thunderstorms and winds were blamed for damage as minor as power lines downs and trees blown down throughout East Tennessee, including Marion, Hamilton, Bradley, McMinn, Blount, Loudon, Polk, Sevier, Sequatchie and Knox counties, according to the weather service local storm report.

* A flood warning for East Tennessee had been in effect until 7:45 a.m. Eisentrout, the NWS meteorologist, said flood warnings usually accompany thunderstorm warnings. The Cumberland Plateau, about 60 miles west of Knoxville, received 5 inches of rain overnight, including 2 inches within an hour.

* School systems were reportedly closed in McMinn, Meigs, Cocke and Sevier counties. Sevier County schools will be open on Wednesday, Dec. 1, with the exceptions of Pi Beta Phi Elementary and Gatlinburg-Pittman High. Counselors will be on had beginning at noon at G-P for students of those two schools.

* Nickel-sized hail was reported at 2 a.m. in the town of Alcoa in Blount County by an amateur radio operator. The report has not been substantiated, and no damage has been reported. A two-minute hailstorm was also reported in Sevier County lasting until about 2:42 a.m.

* The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, Mich., posted on its website that people in that area are complaining of smelling smoke. The report stated: "The source was from forest fires in the Great Smoky Mountains area, including the one which engulfed Gatlinburg, Tenn., Monday night. An analysis of the meteorological setup last night supports this theory. A large storm system currently over the central U.S. induced a strong south-to-north flow of air on Monday between the Southeast U.S. and the Great Lakes, with wind speeds in the lowest mile of the atmosphere between 20 and 60 mph. Computer models run in a "backwards trajectory" mode confirm that air over Lower Michigan at 10 p.m. passed through the Smoky Mountains 12 hours earlier. A cold front passed through Lower Michigan early Tuesday morning, shifting the winds southwest and bringing in fresh air."

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