Sevier County Emergency Management Agency

⚠️ Summer Severe Weather Preparedness ⚠️

Summer in East Tennessee can bring strong thunderstorms, damaging winds, heavy rainfall, flash flooding, and even tornadoes. Don't wait until severe weather is approaching to prepare!

✅ Sign up for emergency alerts through CodeRED to receive important weather and emergency notifications.
✅ Have multiple ways to receive weather warnings, especially overnight.
✅ Review your family's emergency plan and know where to take shelter during severe storms.
✅ Secure outdoor furniture, umbrellas, and other loose items that could become dangerous in high winds.
✅ Keep an emergency kit stocked with flashlights, batteries, medications, water, and important documents.
✅ Never drive through flooded roadways — Turn Around, Don't Drown.

Being prepared today can help keep you and your family safe when severe weather strikes.

📲 Sign up for CodeRED emergency alerts at sevierema.org and stay informed all summer long.

🌡️ When the heat rises, preparedness matters.

Extreme heat can affect anyone, especially those working outdoors, older adults, young children, and people with chronic medical conditions.

Take a moment to make a heat plan:
✔️ Know where you can go to cool off.
✔️ Keep water readily available.
✔️ Schedule outdoor activities for the cooler parts of the day.
✔️ Check in on family, friends, and neighbors.

Being prepared for extreme heat is just as important as preparing for any other emergency.

Stay weather-aware and sign up for CodeRED alerts at sevierema.org to receive important emergency notifications in Sevier County. ☀️💧

Effective today, burn permits issued through the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry are no longer required for open burning in Sevier County until October 15, 2026.

Although permits are not required during this period, all outdoor burning must still be conducted in accordance with all applicable Tennessee Division of Forestry regulations, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) regulations, local ordinances, and all other applicable state laws.

The following safety requirements shall be observed at all times:

• Fires shall be constantly attended and supervised until fully extinguished
• An adequate method of fire control and extinguishment shall be immediately available at the burn site
• Open burning shall not be conducted within an unsafe distance of structures, vehicles, combustible materials, woodlands, or other exposures
• Burning shall not be conducted during hazardous weather or wind conditions that could cause fire spread or create a public safety hazard

Any person conducting open burning in violation of applicable laws, regulations, or safety requirements may be subject to enforcement action, citation, suppression costs, civil penalties, and/or criminal penalties as prescribed by Tennessee law.

Please burn responsibly and help protect the citizens, visitors, property, and natural resources of Sevier County.