Rain soaking Chattanooga and there's more on the way

FORECASTToday: High 85, 70 percent chance showers and stormsThursday: High 85, 80 percent showers and stormsFriday: High 87, 50 percent chance of thunderstormsSource: WRCB Channel 3 Meteorologist Paul Barys, National Weather Service

Lora Long began to worry as the water began rising, moving closer and closer to the new flooring and furniture in her restaurant, the Market Street Tavern.

Quick, heavy, afternoon rain created lakelike floodwaters along Market, Chestnut and Broad streets in downtown Chattanooga, including in front of Long's business.

"The traffic going by would push the water up to the door," said Long, co-owner of the tavern. "We tried to divert traffic because every little wave was pushing water up to the door. Some people were cooperative, but some people were just downright nasty about it."

She and her son tried to divert drivers away from the intersection of Market and Eighth streets until the flooding went down.

The storm caused water to rise about two feet on some downtown streets. The National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn., reported that Chattanooga's airport received 0.3 inches of rain Tuesday. Red Bank received a little more than an inch of rain.

But along with bringing some high water, the rain also dropped the temperatures from the low 90s into the 70s. And more rain is expected over the next couple of days, forecasters say.

On Tuesday, by the time city workers arrived to direct traffic away from the flooded area, the water had receded, Long said.

The storm also caused more than 1,000 homes and businesses to lose power temporarily, according to Debbie Dwyer, public relations supervisor at EPB. The highest number of outages occurred in the Harrison-Highway 58 area, she said.

The outages were caused by fallen limbs and trees and a few lightning strikes, Dwyer said. EPB was working to restore power to the affected areas as quickly as possible.

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