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Underwater dive teams 'do everything by feel' while working rescues and recoveries

"(They) dive and try to save someone's life, or at least make a recovery of someone's loved one," Whited said. "It's very important to the community."

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — Two separate incidents brought dive teams into Tennessee waters last night.

In Anderson County, a car went into the water on Henderson Road.  

One person died in that incident.

RELATED: THP: Knoxville man died after driving SUV into water

Then in Knox County, the Sheriff's Office says a man died at Concord Yacht Club after telling his wife he was going to clean his boat.

Law enforcement officials called the Knox County Rescue Squad for both.

The volunteer organization ended up responding to the one in Knox County.

"It's not pleasure diving," Deputy Chief at the Knox County Rescue Squad, John Whited said. "This is work."

The Knox County Rescue Squad was hard at work Thursday night.

"They have a skill set of diving, and then we take that skill set of diving and put a set of protocols, guidelines and training along with that--and equipment." Whited said. "And then it's up to them to execute."

They found the body of 60-year-old Rodney Meryweather at Concord Park in Knox County Thursday, hours after he told his wife he was going to clean his boat.

RELATED: KCSO identifies man found dead in Fort Loudoun Lake

Whited says the waters of East Tennessee don't make it easy.

"A lot of it is mental preparation," Whited said. "Physical preparation, but also mental preparation to be able to control your emotions and essentially go underwater in blacked out conditions and do everything by feel."

When even the most powerful lights are rendered useless underwater, divers find loved ones or recover items as big as cars.

Whited says they often close their eyes to stay calm, focus and conserve air.

"There's piers and ropes and lines and shopping carts," Whited said. "You know--swimming into a shopping cart that's been pushed off a bridge, and so that does get you. And sometimes you have to do a reevaluation of where you're at in your diving life."

And if something does go wrong, divers use their connecting rope to signal a safety diver to come in after them.

"We never dive alone," Whited said. "We always have a safety diver at the top ready to go in the water, that can go right down that rope, right to them."

And ultimately, these volunteers do it because they want to help the community.

RELATED: Rescue squad looks to private donations to make up funding gap

"(They) dive and try to save someone's life, or at least make a recovery of someone's loved one," Whited said. "It's very important to the community."

The Knox County Rescue Squad always welcomes volunteers or financial donations.

Find out more about the organization here.

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