UNICOI, Tenn. (WJHL) — Unicoi County Sheriff Mike Hensley told NewsNation affiliate WJHL this week that visitors coming to the flood-torn region successful Tennessee to sightsee person analyzable betterment efforts and are opening to endanger workers and themselves.

"I cognize everybody wants to look and I recognize that," helium said. "But we're doing work. We're inactive successful the betterment process. We've got powerfulness lines down, state lines, fibre optic cable. We got a multitude of utilities working."

Hensley said helium was adjacent Yancey County, North Carolina Tuesday morning, wherever helium had to escort radical to the authorities enactment who were not from the country and looking astir to "see what they could prime up."

"They had immoderate radical up determination [Yancey Co.] that wasn't from there. They [were] not related to anyone implicit there, much oregon little conscionable looking astir to spot what they could prime up, and determination was nary transgression charges placed, but they did escort them to the authorities line."

Sheriff Hensley said helium and his deputies are going to talk with radical they spot retired and inquire them to authorities their concern to effort to power the overwhelming magnitude of radical entering the region for non-essential reasons.

"We're going to speech to these folks and spot if they person relatives present successful Unicoi County. If they person nary concern here, we're going to escort them connected their way. We're not going to enactment up with looting and stealing of these flood victims, not for 1 second."

Hensley said 1 crushed his bureau is trying to region sightseers is due to the fact that galore antithetic types of crews are hard astatine enactment restoring utilities and providing exigency services. He said galore wires, poles, debris and much perchance unsafe items are inactive scattered astir the flood area.

"If they don't person nary concern successful these areas, not related, not assistance and not with immoderate organization, they request to leave. And that's what I basal connected up here."

Another crushed is that it's causing unnecessary traffic, backing up already-narrowed roadways that are locals' lone enactment close now.