East Tennessee State’s football team spent a harrowing Friday night stranded on three team buses before Saturday’s 5 p.m. ET game at The Citadel amid catastrophic flooding caused by Helene. President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for the state.
The Buccaneers left Johnson City, Tenn., for their game in Charleston, S.C., at 10:30 a.m. on Friday.
Early in what was supposed to be a six-hour trek south, floodwaters began to rise.
“We end up going over a bridge and about 10 minutes later, the bridge collapsed,” ETSU coach Tre Lamb said in an interview with The Athletic on Saturday morning. “At that point, we can’t turn back.”
As the team raced through Asheville, N.C., to beat road closures and flooding, they received word that two-way traffic on Interstate 40 was shut down due to flooding and mudslides. Their only option was to stay heading south on I-26, but soon after receiving word of the closure, cell service for all 120-130 people in the travel party went down, including the police officer escorting the buses.
“We didn’t have service for 12 hours. No communication with anybody. Could not get through to our wives, our AD, our operations girl who was here at the hotel. That was the most frustrating part,” Lamb said. “We couldn’t get any information.”
As the buses hurtled down I-26, one of the drivers received a CB dispatch from his company informing him that I-26 was being shut down six miles ahead. The team had flood waters behind them and no alternative routes available.
“We just got trapped. Tennessee Tech was playing in Charlotte, and they got through 10 minutes before us. Our radio crew got through about five miles ahead of us. We just got screwed,” Lamb said. “It closed everything at the perfect time, and there was no turning back.”
The buses pulled off I-26 and attempted to continue south on Spartanburg Highway in Hendersonville, N.C., but as soon as they turned off the interstate, encountered floodwaters. They pulled into the parking lot of a shoe store and turned the buses off until flood waters began rising toward the parked buses.
They moved the buses to higher ground about a half mile away, where they were stranded for the next six hours. Other stranded motorists and people whose homes had been flooded were in the area, and rescue crews came to the buses with sobering news. They had no way to move them until the waters receded — and it could be up to two days until they could get them out of Hendersonville.
“At that point, my mind goes to food and water,” Lamb said.
He sent a few coaches and the team’s police officer to a nearby Ingles grocery store, but the store was without power. Employees there allowed the team to take 100 pre-made sandwiches — mostly tuna and chicken salad — back to the bus, as well as 15 loaves of bread and 15 jars of peanut butter free of charge.
Shortly after the coaches returned, rescue teams alerted the buses that they might be in a dangerous spot, so they again searched for suitable parking.
At around 7 p.m., they fed the team the sandwiches and at 8 p.m., turned out the lights on the buses and told the team to get some sleep.
At around 9 p.m., offensive line coach Joe Scelfo and quarterbacks coach Tyler Dell needed to use the restroom, so they left the bus and began walking to find a hotel or gas station with power. Along the way, they encountered a Michigan man driving an electric car and hitchhiked to a hotel, where they were able to find service for their cell phones. They called their wives and passed along word of what had happened.
“That’s the first time our wives have heard from us in like eight hours,” Lamb said.
They returned to the buses and went to sleep, but around 1:30 a.m., there was a loud knock on the bus window. It was the motorist who’d picked up the coaches earlier in the evening. Knowing they had no service, he drove back to the team buses with good news. He’d heard I-26 had reopened, but it might mean needing to navigate around some trees.
“High anxiety. I felt like I was responsible for 130 people and trying to make the right decisions,” Lamb said.
Lamb sent the police officer to scout the path, and he returned to the buses hopeful they could make it to Charleston.
“For about 20 miles, we dodged trees and water and got down toward Greenville and Columbia and made it to Charleston at about 4:30 this morning,” Lamb said. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for the random guy they jumped in a car with coming to get us, we’d still be there. We were all asleep.”
The team had Waffle House delivered to the hotel before letting players go to their rooms and get some sleep.
At around 6 a.m., Lamb got a call from ETSU athletic director Richard Sander alerting him that the game time had been moved from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“We’re getting ready to roll. This is something we can rally around and make no excuses. This team will be ready to play,” Lamb said. “I had about 14 hours straight of anxiety, and I feel like calling plays is gonna be really easy today. Whatever happens, happens. We made it out of there.”
(Photo: Courtesy of ETSU football)
