Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and several Tennessee state and national representatives took a tour of the Northeast Tennessee Disaster Relief Center at Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday afternoon.
Led by BMS track president and general manager Jerry Caldwell, Lee was joined on the tour by U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and Tennessee Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger. Later in the day Caldwell also gave a separate tour to Tennessee District 6 Congressman John Rose.
Lee, Blackburn and Harshbarger toured the 80,000-square foot warehouse being used as homebase for the center, the BMS South Building, and met with volunteers and officials throughout the center. Today is the fifth day of operation for the center.
“I’m here to witness what the response should be from the agencies, the government, and to coordinate with Senator Blackburn, Congressman Harshbarger, to coordinate with the federal funding and the federal programing,” Lee told a group of media members during an interview session. “We want to make sure these folks represent us to D.C., which is a very important part of this process. That's why we are here to see it all come together.
"Today what you see is boxes and boxes and pallets and cases of water and food and medical supplies," Lee said. "Everything folks are going to need to survive that initial rebuilding period. There is a great need out there. We want to make sure everything that is donated finds its way to someone in need. Nothing can replace the heartache that has been seen already. There is a great desire to respond in a way to provide great support for people that are going through the hardest days of their lives."
Lee stopped and talked with many of the volunteers, staff and military members and shook their hands and thanked them for their involvement. He also walked through the donation receiving line outside where trucks were lined up and spoke to all of the folks who were making drop-offs.
“What we’re seeing here is the part where government isn’t the entire answer, the people are the answer,” Lee said. “They are answering the call and it’s evident here. We are the volunteers in this state and the Volunteer spirit is alive and well. There's also an American spirit here, just in a few minutes I walked through the line and talked to people from four or five states who were here to help. It's inspiring."
Bristol Motor Speedway was designated as the Northeast Tennessee Disaster Relief Center in coordination with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency on Thursday, Oct. 3. The center, open from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, serves as a home base for recovery efforts and a major distribution center in the aftermath of the devastating flooding from Hurricane Helene.
The BMS site is a major donation and collection center, providing workspace for the logistics and search and rescue teams in a central staging area, and also houses a regional disaster relief hotline. The regional disaster relief hotline number of 423-830-2696, and is available each day to those who need assistance.
“Our responsibility is to respond, there are still places that don’t have water, that don’t have power," Lee said. "There are still needs out there, roads that are still not fixed. There are a lot of survivors in this region -- East Tennesseans are survivors."
Said Caldwell: "It's amazing what we are able to do and the response we are able to give. Our friends and neighbors are here helping. We are blessed to have this facility that we can open up to help."
Caldwell said on that Friday when the storms hit he immediately contacted Nashville to see if there was a way BMS could help.
"I reached out to the Governor's office to see what we can do to be most effective," Caldwell said. "They connected us with the folks at Tennessee Emergency Management and they started realizing that the smaller communities were getting inundated with supplies and they were also trying to get first responders through. We knew we could centralize some of that stuff. We have some of our staff here working as well as the volunteers and we have put some systems in place so we can track things as they come in, sort it and get it out and get to the people who need it most."
