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CHATTANOOGA — With children and other onlookers holding umbrellas, Sylvester Kitchens stood in the flooded street, laughing and bragging he could swim an overflowing Chattanooga storm ditch outside their house.
Wearing shorts and shirtless, the 46-year-old Kitchens dared onlookers to bet him $5 he couldn't do it. Even when nobody showed any money, Kitchens jumped in.
After bobbing along in the gushing water about 150 feet late Sunday afternoon and grabbing a chain link fence above the ditch, Kitchens lost his grip as family members tried to toss him the end of a water hose. He washed away into an underground culvert.
Two days later, Chattanooga fire officials are still searching for him.
Kitchens' nephew, 22-year-old Leslie Townsend, saw it all. Townsend said he is heartbroken but doesn't want others to follow his uncle's playful example around dangerous, fast-moving water.
Townsend described his uncle as a good swimmer. He said Kitchens had not been drinking when he jumped in the rushing water and planned to grab vines that were dangling within reach from surrounding trees.
"It was more like an ego thing, like I'm going to show you I can make it out of this," Townsend said. "You ain't got to prove nothing, not when it's a matter of life and death."
Townsend said there were great nephews and other young children who saw it all.
Fire Department spokesman Bruce Garner said Monday that emergency personnel and firefighters were able to retrieve Albert Miller, who jumped in the flooded ditch behind Kitchens and was clinging to the fence. Miller was treated for hypothermia symptoms and was back at home Monday.
Garner said the search for Kitchens was hampered by the flooding conditions but was continuing.
At nearby East Ridge, flooding forced a few families to evacuate their homes, in some cases by boat.
The effects of the heavy rain continued to be felt Tuesday farther north in East Tennessee. The National Weather Service upgraded a flood warning for Cocke and Jefferson counties along the French Broad and Pigeon rivers.
Forecasters said moderate flooding was expected because extremely heavy rain in the North Carolina mountains was causing the rivers to rise higher and faster than had earlier been forecast for downtown Newport and the Edwina community.
More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel.
Update: The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on Thursday that the body of Sylvester Kitchens has been found. Read this story for more details.
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