A kayaker from Blount County has not been seen for around two days after heading out onto Tellico Lake the night of Aug. 11, and search crews have so far recovered only his kayak and belongings, found drifting near Chilhowee Dam. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is leading the search, which has stretched into a remote stretch of the reservoir where radio and cell phone service drop out entirely.
According to WBIR, TWRA received a tip about a man who had gone out on Tellico Lake on Aug. 11 and has been searching since. Investigators located the missing kayaker's vehicle at a nearby boat ramp, and a boater later found the kayak and his belongings drifting near Chilhowee Dam on Aug. 12, per TWRA.
The search has drawn in multiple agencies. TWRA game wardens, the Blount County Sheriff's Department, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol have conducted searches using sonar equipment, and THP has deployed its aviation unit to scan the area from above. Crews have checked nearby islands without success, and as of the latest update, the search had identified no targets.
Storms and Flooding Hit East Tennessee the Night He Vanished
The kayaker was last seen on the lake the same night that East Tennessee was under multiple flood warnings, including one covering Blount County, on Aug. 11. The National Weather Service in Morristown had issued hazardous weather outlooks that day, warning that severe afternoon and evening thunderstorms could bring heavy rainfall and localized flooding across the region, according to the National Weather Service. Those storm conditions coincided directly with the window in which the kayaker went missing on the water.
Why the Search Area Near the Dam Is So Difficult
Chilhowee Dam, an 88-foot-tall hydroelectric facility on the Little Tennessee River between Blount and Monroe counties, is owned and operated by Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower in a run-of-river configuration, with water releases tied to daily peaking operations driven by TVA's Fontana Dam upstream. Tellico Reservoir itself covers roughly 15,560 acres with 357 miles of shoreline, stretching 33 miles along the Little Tennessee River up to the base of the dam, according to the Tennessee Valley Authority. Tennessee boating regulations require anyone on a vessel to wear a Coast Guard-approved life jacket while operating in marked hazardous zones directly below dams, per the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, since turbulent currents and sudden water discharges in those tailwaters create heightened risks for small watercraft.
The area also poses navigational hazards beyond the dam itself. The lake system includes the 11-mile Tellico Blueway flatwater paddling route, which runs along the Tellico River arm of the reservoir and features stump-filled areas that limit large motorboats while drawing flatwater canoes and kayaks, according to Knoxville TN Real Estate. Combined with the loss of radio and cell service in the search zone, those submerged obstacles have complicated efforts by TWRA and its partner agencies to pin down what happened.
State Safety Rules and a Wider Pattern on Tennessee Waters
Tennessee law requires non-motorized paddlecraft like kayaks to carry a readily accessible, wearable Coast Guard-approved life jacket for every person aboard, and to display a white light or lantern when operating after sunset or in reduced visibility, under Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency rules. Children under 13 must wear a life jacket at all times while underway or drifting. Nationally, Coast Guard data published in 2024 found that 76% of boating accident fatalities were caused by drowning, and 87% of those victims were not wearing a life jacket, according to the Coast Guard Foundation.
This case adds to a season that has otherwise trended safer on Tennessee's waterways. TWRA reported 10 boating-related deaths statewide by July 2026, down from 13 recorded over the same period in 2025, and the agency logged zero boating fatalities during the 2026 Fourth of July holiday weekend, per WBIR. Statewide, 2025 saw 184 reportable boating incidents, 24 recreational boating fatalities, and 48 injury incidents, with Norris Lake recording the highest number of incidents and fatalities that year, according to WakeTrace Marine Forensics. Tellico Reservoir has its own history of water emergencies; in March 2021, TWRA officers investigated a drowning at Tellico Village after an angler fell off a dock into the water during high winds and never resurfaced, with marine units eventually recovering the victim, per the earlier WBIR report.
As of the latest search update, TWRA has not identified any targets in the water, and the timeline of how the kayaker ended up separated from his kayak near the dam remains unclear. The search continues in the remote stretch of lake near Chilhowee Dam, where the combination of storm conditions, dam-driven currents, and spotty communications has left investigators working without eyewitnesses to guide them.
