Mayor Patty Woodby on Leading In East Tennessee
Mayor Patty Woodby shares her journey as Carter County’s first female mayor and how her leadership is driving rural recovery, workforce development, and community resilience.
About Mayor Patty Woodby
Patty Woodby made history as the first woman to serve as Carter County Mayor, after previously becoming the county’s first female commission chair. Appointed in 2020 to complete the late Rusty Barnett’s term, she was elected to a full term in 2022, championing vocational education, rural broadband, first responder communications, and initiatives to combat the opioid crisis.
A graduate of East Tennessee State University, Woodby began her career as an administrative assistant in the County Court Clerk’s office. Mayor Woodby’s leadership blends compassion, resilience, and pragmatism, reflecting a deep commitment to rural communities and female representation in government.
About Carter County’s Vision
Under Mayor Woodby, Carter County is focused on strengthening the foundations of rural life while addressing urgent needs unique to Appalachian communities.
Through investments in vocational and technical education, Woodby is expanding pathways for students and adults to earn certificates and associate degrees, connecting education directly to local workforce opportunities. Programs like these are central to creating economic stability, fostering job growth, and supporting long-term recovery from crises like Hurricane Helene, which devastated homes, schools, and infrastructure.
Her governance style reflects the pressures of leading a small, rural county, balancing innovation, community engagement, and resilience in the face of natural disasters and economic challenges—all while encouraging more women to step into leadership roles in Tennessee.
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Spencer: Mayor Patty Woodby, Mayor for Carter County. Welcome to Signature Required.
Mayor Woodby: Thank you for having me.
Spencer: Carli and I have a couple different companies and all, but one of our companies is CEO. By a woman in leadership, we believe in female leadership. There's just something special, uh, about the intuition. Uh, but also in the transportation space, you don't see very [00:01:00] many female leaders come to the table and it kind of keeps the competition off balance a little bit. Uh, so I imagine that's something you might be able to relate to a little bit.
Mayor Woodby: I extremely can relate to that. Yes, I can.
Spencer: So, first off. Tell us. For those that don't know where Carter County is, tell us where it's at. But then tell us a little bit about, uh, the dynamic of how many females do what you do.
Mayor Woodby: Well, Carter County is a small rural county located in the very tip corner of Tennessee and northeast Tennessee.
Mayor Woodby: We are the county next to Johnson County at the very edge of the state. So we are right at the North Carolina line, um, population of around 57,000 in, uh. Carter County, so and so, the state of Tennessee has 95 counties and there's only three female county mayors, um, that are currently in that role.
Spencer: Hmm. So give us a couple cities for those that may not know the county names, just some that are kind of in [00:02:00] that approximation.
Spencer: 'cause
Mayor Woodby: some, some, some of the areas that are kind of placemakers where people kind of relate to how to get to Carter County is Bristol Motor Speedway. Okay. We are 30 minutes away from Bristol, Tennessee. My favorite race track,
Carli: by the way. Yes. The
Mayor Woodby: fastest half mall. Um, it's kind of the, the track that everybody wants to see or experience.
Mayor Woodby: And of course, we just had our first major league baseball game, um, at the Speedway. We turned that, converted that speedway into a baseball diamond, which was unbelievable experience by the way. And then of course we have Johnson City, um, which is a, the metropolitan area, Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol is kind of considered the Tri-Cities and then Carter County's in, in the outlier of those.
Mayor Woodby: Um, the Tri-Cities area. So those are, those are good little spots that people kind of use as place markers to where they wanna to get to. And venture out into the rural areas where Carter County is rural, beautiful lakes, streams, rivers, outdoor recreation, something we're very, very proudful for.
Spencer: A lot of people maybe have the [00:03:00] misconception that Tennessee ends at Knoxville and a lot of people up in the Appalachia, I feel have a little bit of resentment towards that belief to say, Hey, this is an amazing part of Tennessee that if you haven't had the opportunity to visit.
Spencer: You really should. Uh, so can you talk a little bit about that dynamic because just over the history of Tennessee, the power center of Tennessee, meaning like where all the political influence came from, all of it was concentrated in East Tennessee and northeast Tennessee. Uh, it shifted some. It did. So maybe just talk a little bit about the history of it, and then I want to go into the history of you, but I just wanna set the table so that way people can understand why this is really relevant here and for the history of Tennessee.
Mayor Woodby: So you're, you're correct in that analogy. When I came into [00:04:00] this role as the mayor of Carter County five years ago, one of the things that was continuously set is nobody realizes that this part of the state exists. Everybody, you know, the state stops at Knoxville. And so I really made that a focus personally and professionally to make, to change that.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. Um, we have eight other, seven other county mayors in northeast Tennessee, which make up the first. Tennessee Development District, all eight of us. And so with those mayors, especially the older ones who had been in that role, we have, we have really tried to do more of a regional approach. Mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: And when I say regional, we wanna establish that together. When we're working together, we make more of a statement than individually. Um, and we, that has been our goal these past five years. And as these five, these eight mayors and especially five of us have been through COVID. And now Hurricane Helene. Um, that strength of each of us working together has really solidified a change, and we've seen the transition happen there.
Mayor Woodby: There [00:05:00] has been more of a conversation about northeast Tennessee and the teamwork that we put together as mayors. Um, we started going together to Nashville six years ago. We started this as a. As a force, we all eight mayors when we go, we go every year in January. Um, we put together a very grueling itinerary, um, to meet with the governor, all the commissioners and the Northeast Tennessee caucus.
Mayor Woodby: Um, and we make sure they know where they're I'll. Never forget. When I first came into this role, um, mayor Venable and Mayor Grande Washington and Sullivan County Mayors took me under their wing and I am so grateful for them. But we, we did that Nashville trip and we put that together. Um, and I did help with that, but I was still new.
Mayor Woodby: And from then on, I've kind of taken the role of being the lead on meeting with each one of our commissioners and the governors, and we want each one of us to have a topic. What can we go down here and talk about and bring [00:06:00] back home that we want as a region, a regional approach? Because each individual county can't do anything without each the other.
Mayor Woodby: I mean, yes, there are some things that are particular to our counties, but in the grand scheme of thing in northeast Tennessee, we need a regional approach and a regional ask. So every year we try to have a regional ask, and that has grown and grown. Um.
Spencer: mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: So to me, that was the first step in making everyone realize that the state does not stop at Knoxville. Mm-hmm. But you have to have that. Teamwork with the mayors.
Mayor Woodby: Um, we have worked on several regional projects together, bringing millions into Northeast Tennessee. Um, anything that we feel is, would be effective for northeast Tennessee, we do letters and we sign them together.
Spencer: Hmm.
Mayor Woodby: It's much more powerful to get a letter advocating for whether it be. The school vouchers, whether it be, um, increase in funding to our forensic center, whether it be [00:07:00] increase in funding for a new airline to our airport when you have eight mayors signed on, agreeing, I think that makes a, makes a statement and therefore it opens up those more, those conversations.
Mayor Woodby: Whereas one mayor could never sure go down and, and make that big of an, that large of an impact.
Carli: I love that. It is no surprise to me that you are the one that is whipping everyone into shape For these, you are making the itinerary. That is what I do in my household. I think it's okay to say that there are some traits that you accumulate when you are a mom and a woman in business about being organized and whipping everyone together and making the itinerary and knowing exactly how far to push that.
Carli: Is just uniquely feminine in leadership. Mm-hmm. And so can you talk to me a little bit about that, how that has informed
Mayor Woodby: your work? Well, I, I agree with that. I, I believe I've brought a lot of those characteristics in my private, being a mother into this professional role. I do try to mother a lot of people.
Mayor Woodby: I nurture my friendships, I take care of those friendships. Um, I find a lot of pride in having. Friendships with good people, [00:08:00] um, as far as just sending texts daily to check on people to say thank you for what you're doing. Mm-hmm. But I do that with our mayors also. I have a group text and I have all of us in it.
Mayor Woodby: And whether it's Y'all are sending gifts and emojis all day long, aren't you? Yes. And whether it's from a professional level of what we're dealing with daily, or it's at a personal level with some, one of their wives being in the hospital. We have a, one of our mayors that had hip replacement surgery, um, we have another mayor who is dealing with a cancer diagnosis.
Mayor Woodby: Hmm. Um, everyone's got something personal going on in their life, but for them to be strong leaders, they need the support mechanism behind that. And s supporting each other behind the scenes to me is very important. And as a female supporting others behind the scenes, I find that mothering, um, like I do my children.
Mayor Woodby: Not saying that that's the same type of Sure Care that I show, but it's. Care for them as far as understanding what criticisms do to you. Mm-hmm. The social media and the things that you read about yourself on the social media, people say about you. Yeah. And a [00:09:00] lot of people say, you just gotta shrug that off.
Mayor Woodby: Yes you do, but we're still human. You still feel it and it still hurts. You still read it. And even though you think, gosh, if they knew me, they would not say these things about me. That is not who I am. But I see that happening to my colleagues. And the mayors, and I always say, Tex, keep your head up. This will pass.
Mayor Woodby: We've been through some pretty tough times together. And, um, I'll say this, it matters who's in these roles.
Spencer: Yeah.
Mayor Woodby: Um, next year's a year, a voting year. It's an election year.
Mayor Woodby: It matters. It matters who is in these roles at the local level, especially the local level is what impacts everybody's daily life. There's, those are the levels where decisions are being made that impact those single home families. Those couples who are struggling to keep their kids in every sport and pay for those grueling fees or whatever that may, may be, even though they have great jobs, it's still a struggle.
Mayor Woodby: Um, and so local decisions are important and it matters who, who we're in these roles. [00:10:00] I have to
Carli: ask you. I think in female leadership sometimes there's this tendency to feel like you need to be given permission to lead or that someone needs to see it in you and pull you up to do it, but. It sounds like you had that power inside you the whole time.
Carli: When did you have that light bulb go off that it's like, I'm not waiting for this table to be set. I'm gonna take this leadership opportunity 'cause I'm the right person for the job. When
Mayor Woodby: I first came into this role was very unusual. Yeah. The way I came into this role and I did start out seeking approval.
Spencer: Yeah. I
Mayor Woodby: wanted to work hard and I wanted to be accepted because of being in this. A female is very rare in this role. I'm the first female mayor in Carter County. I'm the first female. I came out of that, into that role from being the first female chair of our county commission. Um, only within two years of being a county commissioner.
Mayor Woodby: My first political role ever. Within three years, I was the county mayor, ever stepping foot into the political arena. So I was scared, nervous, and I felt like I had to prove myself, [00:11:00] and I made a conscious decision to make sure that I walked through every door. And pushed it open, whether or not it was shut regardless, and made every ask that I could to get it back to northeast Tennessee and to Carter County.
Mayor Woodby: And for the first two years in my appointment, when I took that role, that's what I did. And. It was tough and it was hard, and I was told no quite a few times, but I never let that stop me. And I always went back. And now it's a running joke between, um, the mayors and our Nor and our Northeast Tennessee caucus and the governor, um, of when I show up, it's time to find some money.
Mayor Woodby: So I have found that, at first I thought, oh, I don't know if I wanna be known for that. But now I find that rewarding. Um, because it's to the point in my career that hard work has paid true dividends, especially when Helene hit Carter County and northeast Tennessee to where it was very easy for me to make a phone call to need millions of dollars to the governor of this great state.
Mayor Woodby: And him in two days sending that to me. To me that's a [00:12:00] testament of partnerships and friendships and nurturing and love because people know you're gonna do what you say you're gonna do. Mm-hmm. But I had to start by beating the doors down in Nashville every, every chance I could get. I was down here, um, looking for opportunities, looking for grants, looking for funding.
Mayor Woodby: Um, and, and at my calculations in my five years of being the mayor in Carter County, I have. Brought in around $120 million directly or indirectly into Carter County. Let's go.
Spencer: That's amazing. 'cause Carli and I have spent. A fair amount of time up and around Carter County and the mindset there is a real hunger for growth, for economic opportunity.
Spencer: And it's a little bit of a different tune in that Carli and I spend most of our time in Nashville and Nashville is kind of saying we don't want anymore. Yes. And so it's just another highlight of how. The state of [00:13:00] Tennessee is so varied. Like one of my favorite stats and I'm gonna get to tell it 'cause I have the mic and I'm not gonna let you tell it 'cause I just love this, love this, this truism is that when you are in Kingsport, Tennessee, you are closer to Canada.
Spencer: Then you are to Memphis. That is true. That is a true fact. Mm-hmm. And it is unbelievable. Like if you turned Tennessee vertical rather than running horizontal, like the number of states and cultures that you would overlap is, is just really, really, um, stunning to, uh, to, to reflect on. So, um, when you think about all of that money that you have brought in all of that investment.
Spencer: Where is that flowing? Because I can appreciate in the recovery from the hurricane, like clearly there's repairs, but your work has, has been way more, uh, both before and after [00:14:00] the hurricane than just there. So maybe just give a, a little bit of a tour of a highlight of where some of those more significant investments have gone.
Mayor Woodby: Much of my focus has been education. Um. Addiction. I'm a big supporter of addiction treatment, therapy, and programs and inpatient programs for our communities. Rural, Northeast Tennessee is covered up in. That arena, um, with addiction and no way out of it. Yeah. And then also opioids, opioid addiction, methamphetamine, um, you name it.
Mayor Woodby: We're seeing it, um, especially in those rural nooks of Carter County and northeast Tennessee. Also outdoor recreation. That's a big, big arena that I'm a big supporter of, as you know, that is economic development and we, we house those jewels of opportunity in Carter County, our lakes, river streams, mountains, um, and then one of the other big areas is healthcare.
Mayor Woodby: Uh, I try to be a big supporter of rural healthcare and bring in opportunities to our [00:15:00] area, whereas most of our elderly individuals don't have those opportunities. And rural healthcare has become a big topic in northeast Tennessee. And working with Ballad Health, who is the, who owns most of the hospitals and rural hospitals in our community, bringing new ideas to promote.
Mayor Woodby: Um, education and having these young individuals get into these programs for the nursing and the doctors and the things that we need, and keep them at home for rural healthcare instead of allowing them to travel outside of the state because. That is very important. Um, jobs, keeping those jobs in, uh, east Tennessee,
Carli: there's so much that you're doing from healthcare to job creation, to conservation.
Carli: You name it. One that hits that you just mentioned that hits really close to home for me is the opioid crisis. There's people I love very much that it, um, that impacts them every day. Mm-hmm. And I think it's relatable. There is no one right now that has the privilege of saying they don't know someone.
Carli: Correct. It is a sibling. It's a [00:16:00] parent, it's a friend, it's a friend's grandparent. You name it. This epidemic is just. It's a crisis. Mm-hmm. And I'm wondering what is working in your county that other people could think about or go to their local officials and say, Hey, this is working there. Let me see if it's working here.
Carli: Like what would you say?
Mayor Woodby: So about three years ago we had the Northeast Tennessee Regional Recovery Center. And this was once again, a regional push. Um, I had an actual prison in Carter County that closed, it was a minimum security prison. It closed during. D due to funding. Um, and then we have inpatient, we have an outpatient program in our court systems.
Mayor Woodby: Um, it's called the Drug Court Outpatient Program, and these individuals are vetted, put into a program and put in an outpatient for recovery and treatment. We have a couple of about three criminal court judges in the First Judicial District that have always had a dream for an inpatient program for 12 to 18 months.
Mayor Woodby: Well, when this facility closed, that became a big idea to [00:17:00] turn this prison into an inpatient facility. And the push became very early on, um, can we do this and where are we going to get the funding to do this? So once again, that regional approach, bringing judges together, county commissions together, mayors together to basically take off your everyday hat, think outside the box and let's work together to do this.
Mayor Woodby: And we did.
Spencer: We,
Mayor Woodby: it's a very successful program, but we turned an actual prison into an inpatient treatment facility for males, um, serving all eight. Northeast, northeast Tennessee counties. And how we got that off the ground was, first of all, we had to get the governor talked in to giving us this property.
Mayor Woodby: Um, 'cause they originally planned to just sell it off or auction it off for whatever, whoever would want it In my, I'm thinking, who would take a prison on the side of a mountain? And do anything good with it. Um, so that once we began to decide that we thought we could get [00:18:00] his support mm-hmm. We had to show that we had some skin in the game.
Mayor Woodby: We had to find some funding that would be able to support this program. And that's when we began what we call the Black Robe Brigade and Judge Stre and Judge Ross. Um, were, were head did head this up, and we began going to every council, every county commission in all eight counties. Asking for opioid money.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. And this was a lawsuit that a local district attorney saw after in northeast Tennessee and won for several millions of dollars that the, um, pharmacies ended up having to pay back into our local governments and several of the counties were allotted the money on a per capita basis based upon your.
Mayor Woodby: How many people you have lived there, your, your census? Um, Carter County, we, we were allotted $1.6 million. Sullivan County was allotted around $3.3 million. And then each county thereafter, Johnson and Unicoi being the smallest, around 50,000. But we wanted to make that ask for all of that money to be able to put [00:19:00] towards this facility.
Mayor Woodby: we knew we had an uphill battle. 'cause that was gonna be hard for county commissions to say, okay, we're gonna trust you and give you all these millions to see if you can really get this program off the ground.
Mayor Woodby: Or we could use this right now and purchase school buses, fix our jails, fix our buildings, purchase, um, sheriff's department, vehicles, weapons, things that citizens want in their services. Yeah. Very easy to have done so that. We did that whole black brigade speech for probably six months until each county either came on with all of their money or a portion of their money, which for Carter County, we did dedicate all of the 1.6 million, and then Sullivan County did dedicate the 3.8 million.
Mayor Woodby: So with that allotment from every county, we had a total of $10.8 million in our bank account. To get this off the ground.
Mayor Woodby: so we got the support from the top down. It was pretty much a go. He, uh, leased that facility to us for a dollar a year. Um, then we had to set up a board [00:20:00] and then we had to set up the bylaws. We had to start from scratch.
Mayor Woodby: so now we have around 30 males in the facility. Um, we have a female house also that's located in a neighboring county, and that's sufficient for 11 females.
Mayor Woodby: And we basically gutted a home, made it into living quarters where the females could live with their children, um, get jobs and do that program and the programs for 12 to 18 months. Wow. So last October, right after Helene happened. We had already had slated a graduation. It would've been our, it's our, it was our first graduation.
Mayor Woodby: We had 20 individuals graduate that program. And we have not. And the governor did attend 'cause it was the first graduation and it was amazing of what these individuals have done. And we have had no recidivism. Wow. Meaning no lapse in drug tests back into the jail system out of these 20 individuals. Wow.
Mayor Woodby: And then since last October, we've graduated probably 15 more. Patty, so it's working. I
Carli: have to ask you. This is incredible, and every time you tell [00:21:00] a story, I have 17 more questions about said story.
Mayor Woodby: I'm trying to get it all down into just the the real No, but I have to ask you like,
Carli: but there's been a lot to get to that point.
Carli: Sure. Who taught you how to do this? Like how did you know, you know what? There's a prison over here and I'm gonna take six months of doing a stump speech about this. Like where did you learn the skillset? And the gumption that, you know what, I'm gonna serve my local community this way because I'm guessing this can't be taught.
Carli: Was this just who you are? I think that's a
Mayor Woodby: lot from my childhood and the way I was raised. Um, I was raised in a very rural part of Carter County. Very, um, the socioeconomic status there is very low, no working, um, very poor. Um, just to be honest. Um, I have three younger brothers, uh, was raised in a very abusive, um, with my mother and stepdad.
Mayor Woodby: A lot of domestic violence. We've seen probably some horrible things. Uh, she was married for 12 years and when I was 12 years old, she decided to divorce, um, and leave that marriage. [00:22:00] And when she did that, she also decided to leave her kids, um, was basically what happened. Um, she got a boyfriend and, and left us in the area of the, of the county where we lived and left me.
Mayor Woodby: To basically take care of my younger brothers at 12 years old. So I did that. I, uh, I've, I've always said I've been a caretaker all my life and I think that's why that carried over to this role. Um, I've seen a lot of drug abuse through my childhood alcoholism. Um, but I. Made a promise to my younger brothers that, uh, so that meant fixing suppers, getting them up for school, doing homework, making sure all four of us were on the school bus, that we had to walk half a mile to get to every morning.
Mayor Woodby: Um, I, I, I still look back and I think what in, in my mind said. You've got to do this. And I did that up through, um, my senior year of high school, um, getting them all raised. And of course she would come in and out bringing different food and supplies for us, but also the neighbors [00:23:00] and the neighborhood and that community, that rural community took care of us.
Mayor Woodby: And so why, I think now I've got a a, a really. Centric focus on that community because it was devastated so horribly during Helene. So, um, it was kind of a payback time for me, for that community because what they had done for me as a child, uh, so I think a lot of the carryover into this role has been, I've been able to walk in quite a few shoes from.
Mayor Woodby: Being 12 years old, raising three siblings to being a single mom at 23 years old, being a waitress and for 10 years, making living off tips and raising my daughter to going back to school and getting my degree, um, and having my son, and then going back into county, going into county government at my first part-time job, $16,000 a year in county government and just working from the bottom up to the highest job in the county within 10 years.
Carli: I'm curious, did your faith play a role? It did in that? [00:24:00] Mm-hmm. Tell me about
Mayor Woodby: that. It, my faith has probably, and I just, I spoke at one of my churches last night.
Mayor Woodby: We did a, I was invited as a guest speaker for a little bit of reflection for Helene. Um, and one of the things that I said, and you guys have probably seen since the Charlie Kirk assassination. Mm-hmm. I think through the years in pol politics, we've always kept our faith quiet and you don't bring it into that arena, which has been wrong.
Mayor Woodby: Our faith should be in this arena with us helping us make decisions. So I think in this arena, my faith has been strengthened because of the valleys I've been in so many times. And the valleys I was in very early on in my childhood. Um, and I always prayed early in my childhood that the Lord would just lead me.
Mayor Woodby: And I've never looked any other way. And of course, I've made bad decisions. By judgment calls, and I do try to learn from them. Um, but I believe that the Lord put me [00:25:00] here for a reason and I'm supposed to be here, especially through some of the challenges I've been through in this, in my professional life and my personal life, that has made it easier for me to empathize mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: With citizens in my community, um, with a single mom, with someone struggling living paycheck to paycheck to raise their children And so when I make decisions in my role, those are the individuals I think about is will this decision help them?
Mayor Woodby: Is this good for this family? Is this good for this single mom or single dad? Does my decision help them?
Spencer: Hmm.
Mayor Woodby: So, yes, my faith has played a tremendous role, um, for me.
Spencer: uh, mayor. Hurricane Helene is one of those pivotal kind of before and after moments in really the history of Tennessee, but for our listeners that don't remember it, like what you would if you are from Tennessee, from that part of Tennessee. Will you just talk a little bit about that, like set the stage for what happened, [00:26:00] what it was, and what your experience, uh, was, was like, for those that aren't familiar.
Mayor Woodby: So of course nobody expected a hurricane to hit a landlocked state, especially the mountainous, the most mountainous part of the state. So we received two months of rainfall in two days. The speeds of our rivers were at the twice the speed of Niagara Falls. That gives you the setting for what was happening.
Mayor Woodby: I
Carli: hadn't heard that stat before. Twice. And those
Mayor Woodby: twice, the speed of Niagara Falls destroying everything in its path. Literally removing homes, lives and everything people have worked their entire life for.
Spencer: And the timeline for this, for those that don't remember when approximately was this
Mayor Woodby: September 27th, 2024, um, and the rain lasted for almost two and a half days.
Mayor Woodby: And when it stopped that morning, September 27th, I woke up. Um, with a call from my emergency management director saying, we are evacuating Rone Mountain, which is is another community. Um, and we knew that we were gonna evacuate just by the knowledge of the locals. The locals seen the [00:27:00] rivers. They knew.
Mayor Woodby: They didn't wait on someone to come in and say they knew, and they made the call and surround and activated the sirens at 7:00 AM that morning. Um, we began that activation. I then go into the courthouse and I knew I had rain boots on. It was pouring the rain. Um, began evacuating the courthouses myself at 9:00 AM walking across the street to another courthouse in the rain evacuating.
Mayor Woodby: And during that time when I went in that courtroom, um, one of our judges had a jury trial going on and we had a full box of jurors. And I, I went up to the bench and whispered in her ear, I said, we're, we're evacuating. You're gonna have to stop. And she, because they couldn't really tell inside, and as soon as I did that.
Mayor Woodby: A tree, a lightning hit a tree outside and knocked all the power out to the county. Wow. So we did begin evacuating at um, 9:00 AM on county government, which thank goodness I did because the entire county government roses the parking lot, everything was flooded. It got into the courthouse. It has never happened before.[00:28:00]
Mayor Woodby: Um, 11:00 AM we started getting phone calls that individuals were on the roof at the Quay County Hospital, which I know you guys have seen those stories. Yeah. That was, and immediately to me, I thought, I've got a hospital. Mm-hmm. Sycamore Shoals Hospital right beside a river. Yeah. Um, we had no cell phone service, no radio communications.
Mayor Woodby: We were having to use ham, uh, op ham radio operators, which was the old school, come in and help us make communications. All of the cell cell phone towers had been taken out. There was absolutely no communication. So loved ones. People couldn't even call and check on their loved ones. So we had everyone out in the community scanning houses, marking them with Xs to see if they were there, not there.
Mayor Woodby: Um. But in that 11 o'clock timeframe, it's still raining. I went down to Sycamore SHO's Hospital and I called the rescue squad and I said, follow me down. I need to, I think we need to, we're gonna have to evacuate this hospital. But that was not my call. That is up to the healthcare system, ballad Health. Um, they had also had an opera [00:29:00] emergency Operation Center set up at one of their places in Johnson City.
Mayor Woodby: And as I'm on my way there to the hospital, I finally get cell phone service and I call. Um, the CEO of ballot and I tell him my concerns. I just want to make sure, and he said, I'm leave it to you. If you say we need to evacuate, we're evacuating it. And he, I get to the hospital, I was on the phone with TVA in the boardroom and they're getting ready to release the dam, which means the rivers will flood more because the dam is getting full and they've got to release it, which means that river beside of Sca Marshall's Hospital would rise.
Mayor Woodby: And I just couldn't stand the thoughts of it. We had individuals on top of a roof. It's still raining. Um, which TVA was trying to crunch those numbers, and we've got this, and this is the elevation of the hospital and it will not flood. But to me, I'm the local that knows my rivers and knows my streams and I wasn't going to risk it.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. And so I disregarded what they were telling me based upon my gut feeling. And we made the decision to evacuate that hospital, 35 patients to another [00:30:00] location, um, which I'm glad I did. It did not flood, but they did lose power.
Spencer: Mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: So we got them out of there very early on before any type of power loss happened or any flooding, which they did not.
Mayor Woodby: Um, that was 11 o'clock that morning. 12 o'clock I remember. The sun came out, the rain stopped, and then the devastation was evident. Uh, went to one of the locations. And watched a home come down the river. Mobile homes were coming down, the river houses were completely washed off their foundation. It was the most helpless feeling as a leader.
Mayor Woodby: 'cause all I could do is stand there and cry with everyone else as we watched it. Um, so Helene probably tested me to my core and my leadership. Uh, it was a terrible experience to watch everything everyone had worked for. Just gone in this matter of seconds. I worked 16, 17 hour days for two straight weeks.
Mayor Woodby: No water myself. Um, [00:31:00] no sleep. But the one thing I did every single night or every morning when I came in at two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning, was get down on my hands and knees and pray and pray. There would be no loss of life, and he answered it. We're the only county that had no loss of life. In Carter County and, uh, the rest of it can be rebuilt, but that, that's where my faith came into play.
Carli: I think. The, the country is kind of addicted to a news cycle, right?
Carli: Mm-hmm. And so you said you were, say spent two weeks without sleep fighting this. Cause at the end of two weeks, people were still aware, but they were kind of moving on to next work style cycle. Uh, let me say it this way. They were kind of moving on to the next media cycle, but not you, right? You've been dealing with this every single day since.
Carli: So. Take us through. Once the water started to recede, maybe a little bit after those two weeks, you get a full night of [00:32:00] sleep. What happens next?
Mayor Woodby: Well, what happened next was those two weeks were very hectic. Um, of course, just a really little bit of a recap. We had the National Guard there. Mm-hmm. Which very early on we lost.
Mayor Woodby: Um, a community that had only bridges that go to it, those bridges were taken out. So the community was stranded, no power, no water, no food, no way to get medication, no way to get in and out. Um, we needed the National Guard, we needed Black hawks. And we have a small airport in Carter County. Um, and at the time we had TEMA in our EOC, these special specialized team that came in to help us that said, you've gotta go through A, B, C, and D to get that to happen.
Mayor Woodby: I said, I'm not going through anything. Mm-hmm. I stepped outside and I called the governor.
Spencer: Mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: And he immediately, we had eight black hawks sitting on the tarmac in Carter County that have those, those pilots that they have never seen that many black hawks. Mm. We rotated those black hawks out to that community every 20 minutes.
Mayor Woodby: I learned how to do coordinates. I learned how to get them in [00:33:00] and out of that community. Um, we kept those, those blackhawks loaded with supplies and I would go to each one of them directing what would go in there. And I also. Went into the community on the Black Hawks with them. Mm-hmm. Because to me, the most important thing for me is that community needed to see me.
Spencer: Mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: They needed to know. They didn't need to be scared. I was gonna take care of 'em. And that's the community I grew up in. Little Milligan. Mm-hmm. I knew they needed to see me and I was gonna take care of them. I didn't want, um, national Guard jumping off Black Hawks, you know, because they were ready to evacuate.
Mayor Woodby: When I remember going in, jumping outta that black hawk and my leg, my feet sunk up to my knees in mud. Um. Just, and my calming demeanor with them, telling them I'm not, I'm going to take care of them and making sure they get what they need. Probably slowed down evacuation. Mm-hmm. Many people were standing there with everything they had, had their pets.
Mayor Woodby: Um. And they decided to stay. So it calmed that for a minute. And then I began those trips in and out on those [00:34:00] Black hawks. So many I went, I rode in on with night vision on, um, trying to guide through the power lines and having, when we could make communications with that community to get a truck into the field to shine their lights.
Mayor Woodby: And I would stand out with a lot while the National Guard got the generators off the water and all the things that they needed to get out. And I, I tell this story often. I have a small divot in my head and it's still there where I would hit the top of the helicopter every time trying to get, bless all of this stuff out of there.
Mayor Woodby: But, um, just to brag a minute on our National Guard and our, I mean, salt of the earth just. Those fabulous guys that came in and stopped everything they were doing to take care of Carter County and northeast Tennessee. I cannot tell you it, the gratitude just goes forever and beyond for them. They allowed me to stay on those black hawks and ride with them to the point to where I just would buckle myself in.
Mayor Woodby: They'd be like, oh, she's good, she's good. She's got it. Um, but that was the two weeks and once we made [00:35:00] a connection with that, that community, I had to find temporary bridges. Um, we had the National Guard come in to think they could put something down for us, and I was there boots on the ground with them measuring what we could put down that didn't work.
Mayor Woodby: So we reached out to North Carolina and it's railroad cards that they had pieced together to make bridges that they were using in North Carolina. They brought over into Carter County. Of course we had to pay for those. We pay a monthly lease. But that connected that community. Um, and once that connection was made, that's when a little bit of the, the sense of urgency died.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. And we could regroup and I could sleep. Mm-hmm. Once I made connection and we released the National Guard at that time because they needed to, to be able to go to other communities, um, that really gave us an opportunity to assess truly what we were like. 'cause at the time, my hope, my focus was. The communities that could not, I mean, we had communities who needed to have that community medications filled.
Spencer: Mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. Things that they needed to live. So I would, they would fly in and send them in the bags. Marked for me. Mm-hmm. I [00:36:00] would get them to someone to get them filled at the Walgreens or the CVS. They would get them back to me. I would get back on that helicopter, take that in if my, if I wasn't taking it in myself, it was going in with someone special to make sure that they got that medication.
Mayor Woodby: I mean, there's so many integral details that we were doing for citizens. I don't even think people were aware of how important it was to maintain someone's life.
Spencer: Mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: That was. That was those small little levels that we had to do to make sure nobody died. Um, but once we were able to assess the damage, I could calm down and realize we ended up with around $180 million in infrastructure damage in Carter County.
Mayor Woodby: Most of our damage was residential and infrastructure. Residential was around 130 million. We had 75 homes. Um, most of, probably around half of those are completely lost or destroyed. And also not just the home with the land that the home set on mm-hmm. Is no longer there.
Spencer: You probably dealt with a situation where, who carries flood insurance in the mountains.
Spencer: No
Mayor Woodby: resident had, we might have had [00:37:00] two that had flood insurance. Nobody had flood insurance. Yeah, no flood insurance. Um. No land to even build a house back on.
Mayor Woodby: So those are situations that we're still dealing with. Um, the state has been very generous in a lot of the programs, but one of the most important phone calls that I made, um, I made a lot of important phone calls, a lot of important decisions. Decisions that to this day I can't get down in the nitty gritty about, because I think that trauma's still there.
Mayor Woodby: And that's what I spoke at at church last night. Mm-hmm. Um, we lost a high school. Uh, the largest high school in our county of the four, um, 400 students, 65 faculty, over six foot of water submerged the campus and into the building. Um, very early on, FEMA was saying, you can't rebuild. You can't fix it. You can't rebuild here.
Mayor Woodby: It's in a flood plain. Um, with the change in the administration from the Biden administration to the Trump administration, some of those rules changed, which allowed us to, um. Pivot again to be able to [00:38:00] fix the property and mitigate, build a flood wall to try to get these kids back in. But then funding became an issue.
Mayor Woodby: Uh, local government, our total budget's 92 million with the school and the county. Wow. We received $180 million in, in infrastructure damage. So that gives you an idea of the discrepancy of what we're doing based upon what we need to put out, based upon the revenue that we bring in. Wow. Nowhere near it.
Mayor Woodby: Wow. Um. That school is where I graduated high school from where my daughter graduated high school from, and where my son is this year, a senior. Um, so it become very important to get that school fixed, to get that campus fixed to me. And I made it a priority to find the money, um, because the school system itself was very hesitant on fixing it because with FEMA you have to spend to get it back.
Mayor Woodby: Um. It's a whole huge process and it's a very big risk because you really don't know if you're gonna get all of it back. Yeah. And we're experiencing that [00:39:00] now. Mm-hmm. Um, so there were conversations about, Hey, let's just not fix this campus and put these children at these other three high schools. It's not okay.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. The. Sometimes in a rural community, a school or a high school is more than just a school. It's a, it's a piece of the community. It's an identity. It's an identity. It's everything that they have and the mental health that they were already suffering through. 'cause we had to relocate them to another small elementary, thank goodness that we just had closed and we were able to keep them together.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. But they lost, um. No, no athletic fields and they've been sharing with other schools and other communities. So we're, we're seeing some mental health issues there. And we also started to see, um, enrollment decline. People started pulling their kids and then enrollment, there's funding that followed these kids.
Mayor Woodby: So we knew we were going to be in trouble because nobody was able to say, yes, we're gonna have a high school open at this time and we're gonna fix it, and we're gonna have it back. Whether or not it's one year down the road or [00:40:00] five years down the road. The community needed to hear that. So the most important phone call that I made, and this goes back to how important partnerships and relationships are as a leader and how you have to nurture those and do what you say.
Mayor Woodby: I was at my emergency command center. I went into the janitor's closet where I spent many days crying. I did go in that closet quite often to break down and cry and to regroup because I couldn't let that weakness show through. Sure. And I called the governor and he answered. And I remember the conversation with him and I, and I told this last night to that, that community, I told him I was gonna need his help.
Mayor Woodby: I said, we just do not have the money to fix this school. I, I'm not gonna let him close it down. And, uh, I cried. He cried,
Mayor Woodby: So in that, fast forward to my conversation with him probably 30 days later, and I asked him for help and I said, I need some funding for this school.
Mayor Woodby: I have to get it back open. And he said, Fady, I'm gonna [00:41:00] help you. And that that's the relationship I have with this wonderful governor. I'm going to help you. I know how much you love your community by the tears that were coming down your face when we walked Spring Street, and two days later he did a press release and it was a press release for the entire state on all of the disaster funding that was going to come down the pipe for West Tennessee with tornadoes, Maury County from the flooding they'd had previously.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. Whether it was past. Disasters or something they had currently been dealing with. But in that press release was not just Northeast Tennessee, east Tennessee, not just Carter County. It was $20 million allocated to Hampton High School and his press release. Wow. And so. That is how we're fixing that school and we plan to have those children back.
Mayor Woodby: You back. Did you cry in the
Carli: janitor's closet again? Mm-hmm. After that came out, oh my gosh. You would not believe. And his
Mayor Woodby: chief of staff had made me aware that something very good was gonna happen and they wanted, and they had sent me the email with the [00:42:00] press release, but we, as of right now, the school's being fixed.
Mayor Woodby: Um, and, and renovated. And the campus we have, we plan to have those children back in that school in January. And when we made that announcement. Of that timeline, all of the 60 kids that had left are now back in the system. And they're okay with waiting until that school gets it because they know they're gonna have their high school and they're gonna be a bulldog
Spencer: and they get to graduate.
Spencer: And that's what they
Mayor Woodby: dream of is whether you're in eighth grade and you want to go to that school to play football or basketball, or whether you're a senior and you need to walk across that stage, they're gonna get to do that. And that is one of the most important conversations I was able to have, um, from the impacts of Helene.
Carli: There won't be a dry eye in that house when mm-hmm. Those seniors walk across that stage. Mm-hmm.
Carli: Yeah. You can't help but think about all the female students that are gonna be impacted male and female, but representation matters.
Carli: Mm-hmm. And having your leadership be the catalyst for this. Changing [00:43:00] generationally changing campus that you guys are building. I just can't wait to see what's gonna come out of your county. The female leader, you know, I'm a mom of three daughters. We have four kids, but I've got three girls in this capacity for leadership that I think this generation has is so profound.
Carli: Mm-hmm. Because now the barriers are broken down. The representation is coming and there's this moment of saying, no one ever told you you couldn't do this. Yeah, go do it.
Spencer: Yeah.
Carli: And you are doing that and you're counting amidst tragedy. Amidst unthinkable, horror.
Mayor Woodby: And the one of the, one of the most, uh. I don't know.
Mayor Woodby: This facility that we're building, there's an old facility there that's gonna be torn down the houses. Our community college now, we also did the co, we used that facility for the COVID vaccines. Mm-hmm. So we had cars lined in and out of there, and that's where I set that up. Um, so it's kind of a, you know, I remember pulling in that parking lot so many times and praying [00:44:00] during COVID.
Mayor Woodby: Mm-hmm. Because, you know. We had people dying left and right and it was, it was awful. But I remember sitting in that parking lot as those lines were coming through with those tents up and this, and you know, everybody was separated and the distancing. Mm-hmm. And praying for my community again. Mm-hmm. In that devastation, but also praying for that campus.
Mayor Woodby: Because we were still in the midst of this conversation for that campus. And my prayer was to one day be able to drive by that campus and see a brand new facility with adults and children hustling and bustling through there. And I can still see that vision. Um, and it can, it's coming true. So I think one of my strong traits is I have a vision mm-hmm.
Mayor Woodby: For regionalism and really making a difference for our children. And, uh, and that that comes along with being a mother.
Spencer: Hmm, mayor Woodby. The way we end each podcast is I will give, uh, three short phrases with a blank at the end, and you can fill it in with [00:45:00] a word or a short phrase that you think completes the thought.
Spencer: Okay. Okay. Okay. You ready? All right. All right. Here's number one. The one thing rural counties. Like ours need most from state leadership is blank.
Mayor Woodby: The one thing that rural counties like ours need the most from state leadership is partnerships.
Spencer: Mm-hmm. Number two, if I could describe Carter County's spirit in one word, it would be blank.
Mayor Woodby: If I could describe Carter County's spirit in one word, it would be. Resilience.
Spencer: Mm-hmm. And number three, the hardest moment for me as mayor during Hurricane Helene was blank.
Mayor Woodby: The hardest moment for me during Hurricane Helene, [00:46:00] saving my citizens,
Spencer: mayor Woodby, we often. Have the chance to bring people on that by the end of our hour together, the way that the Lord has been preparing them for such a time as this just hits us right in the face, and I can't think of a guest that the Lord's hand has been more clear from you as a 12-year-old. Thrust into action long, long before anyone would have a chance of being successful.
Spencer: But the skills and the grit and the resilience that you learned then and have been able to tell to your fellow residents has served them so well and [00:47:00] continues to serve them today. And it's very clear to me, having been able to hear all that you have stewarded your county through that it would've never happened had you not been trained and gone through the hard things that you've had to go through.
Spencer: And so it's really special to get to see. What is still very much a developing story, you know, like you are a very young leader and have a lot of potential ahead. And so the message that we already knew, but you gave a great job of highlighting, is that the state of Tennessee does not end in Knoxville and some of the most beautiful and uh, the most promising parts of the state.
Spencer: Uh, the ones where the needle can be moved to make the biggest impact is right in [00:48:00] Carter County. And so we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us your stories today, and we're excited to see how you continue to make such a difference in your part of the state.
Mayor Woodby: Thank you so much for those kind words.
Mayor Woodby: I really appreciate that. And thank you for having me. There's, it was just so much I could have gotten through, but I think, um. It is been an honor and it's still an honor for me to be in this role. And one of the things, every morning when I pull into my parking spot every morning, it, you know, they have it marked as mayor, and it is still an honor for me to pull in that parking spot and walk up those steps every morning to my office, no matter the valleys.
Mayor Woodby: That I've been in, um, I'm very humbled by it and, uh, and I, I've dedicated, um, my life to this role. And, um, there's been ups and there's been downs, but the ups and the downs have far, by far made it worth it.
Spencer: Hmm. Thank you so much. Thank.
