Flooding Devastates Portions of Tennessee
Heavy rains and thunderstorms killed at least eleven people in the state of Tennessee last week, closed interstates and forced thousands of residents from their homes. Hotels, nursing homes and military bases were evacuated as streets and parking lots turned into raving rivers.
Part of Tennessee saw an incredible 20 inches of rain fall and more is expected to come down. On interstate 40 Sunday night, dozens of people were left terrified and trapped in their vehicles as water quickly rose around them. Authorities removed bodies from a flooded house in Nashville as well as from an overturned car that was found floating on a flooded road. Two young men had gone tubing Sunday evening on a flooded river in Nashville, and never returned. They are now reported as missing. Sunday night also kept authorities busy evacuating more than 500 residents from the MetroCenter in North Nashville. Nashville mayor Karl Dean told reporters that all of the larger creeks as well as the Cumberland River are near or at flood level now. He also said that there is no where for the continuing rain to go as the ground is at its saturation point.
Inspection teams will be moving into the area to map out the water damage. Nashville officials report that over 1,000 people had been rescued from the flood waters just over the weekend alone. It was also determined that more rain has now fallen in Nashville just within the past twenty-four hours than ever before recorded. Mayor Dean told his city’s residents to stay home from work Monday. Schools in Nashville are closed and public trains and buses will not run until further notice.
Sections of I-24, 40 and 65 around Nashville were closed to due weekend flooding. The heavy thunderstorms also left over 35,000 homes in the Nashville area without power. Residents living in Davis County were told not to use water for anything other than essential reasons after one of the waste water treatment plants was closed. Over 250 nursing home patients in Davidson County were also evacuated. The U.S. Corps of Engineers will be releasing dammed upstream water in the flood ravaged county in an attempt to stop more flooding from occurring.
The rain weary residents of the state of Tennessee have all eyes on the sky and the weather report. In addition to the deaths associated with the state’s flooding, one person was killed in Tennessee over the weekend in a tornado that moved through Hardeman County.
