The following was taken from a blog by a friend of mine. Thom Wallace wrote this piece about our recent flood and I wanted to share it with all of you.
"April 30, 2010. For most of us, Friday began with a hopeful wish that all proceeded smoothly and quickly. Weekend plans taking over thought. Gratitude for the day that marks the end of yet another fully loaded work week.
What we didn’t know –what we hadn’t ever planned for—would soon become the thing that devastated a community and left many without. Local news reports indicated that a more severe storm cell would be entering Middle Tennessee in the early hours of Saturday morning. National Weather Service issued a series of watches and warnings, having studied the cell and realized it would be relatively torrential. All indications seemed to have been that this storm would be fairly bad, but it wouldn’t stay in the area for long. Unfortunately for nearly half the counties in Tennessee, the storm definitely outstayed its welcome.
"April 30, 2010. For most of us, Friday began with a hopeful wish that all proceeded smoothly and quickly. Weekend plans taking over thought. Gratitude for the day that marks the end of yet another fully loaded work week.
What we didn’t know –what we hadn’t ever planned for—would soon become the thing that devastated a community and left many without. Local news reports indicated that a more severe storm cell would be entering Middle Tennessee in the early hours of Saturday morning. National Weather Service issued a series of watches and warnings, having studied the cell and realized it would be relatively torrential. All indications seemed to have been that this storm would be fairly bad, but it wouldn’t stay in the area for long. Unfortunately for nearly half the counties in Tennessee, the storm definitely outstayed its welcome.
The news is not good. It is, in fact, incredibly grim. Hickman County is in near ruins. They are completely stuck on their own newly formed island. Davidson County is soon to feel the wrath of the Cumberland River. It has not reached flood stages yet, but it is on its way. Humphreys County is effectively separated from the rest of the state as well. The Duck River has claimed its territory in Hickman and Humphreys Counties. The Buffalo River is claiming its own territories.
We are flooding. We are flooded. We will be flooded.
It still hasn’t completely sunk in as to what we have just witnessed and to what we will be witnessing more of. The agreeable state of being is in one of a stunned “well, this is a first”.
Parts of Humphreys County are without power. Hickman County as a whole is without power, telephone, and radio towers. Hickman County will soon be without water. With no phones, cell phones, or any other means of communications, Hickman County is alone. The Duck River has risen to the heights of trees. Houses are completely submerged. It is not capable for rescuers to travel in some places due to the fear of what was under the water. A house? A car? A tree? The rest of the road?
The aftermath is described to me by one that did lose a house and all possessions as being as if “someone came into my house, told me to leave, and didn’t allow me to take anything with me. I was being violated. It was like being raped, yet it was a flood.”
The majority of Humphreys County maintained communication capabilities. Word was spreading of what had been damaged and what had survived. The Elementary School was in chaos. The Middle School gymnasium was in water. It was all too much to really accept and assess at the time.
Another dear friend and her mother were effectively forced from her home on Main Street. By the time she was packed and able to leave, the water had risen to nearly the level of the door, having completely overtaken the front porch.
This is just one of many similar stories that would come from the very first weekend in May 2010.
As we are nearly one week from the storm that ravaged Middle Tennessee, the flood waters are only beginning to recede. Losses are being tallied. It is estimated that Davidson County alone will accumulate over 1 billion dollars in damages. Roads are still impassable. Even today, as I traveled from Davidson County through Hickman County, a bridge on Highway 100 had collapsed in the week. I was detoured eventually onto a small dirt road that had once been a paved road before the raging flood waters ripped the pavement from the earth. This road I traveled was being rebuilt as we traveled it. I had to stop a few times to allow the tractor to fill its bucket full of dirt and travel back ahead of me to fill in a passable area.
Highway 230 leading from Hickman County directly into Humphreys County is not passable. From the Nunnelly area of Hickman beyond, several yards of highway are lying in the hay fields beside. Bucksnort, TN, is segregated from every road but the Interstate-40. Bucksnort Road, a dirt path leading from Only into Bucksnort, is in shambles. It was the last hope for some residents of the area.
Communities full of people are unable to leave their homes. Rescuers are unable to reach them. Some that have lost everything they own including the house that is now a mile down the road and a car that is now stuck in a tree at the end of the driveway refuse to leave their properties, for the land and each other are the only things they have left.
It is the sort of situation one never fully understands or can fully sympathize with until they are truly experiencing it. Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans. We saw it on the news and knew it to be a horrific situation. But, one can never fully understand until one is digging through the thick mud and suffering the mold and wretched smells in an area that was once your living room or kitchen.
It is a wasteland. With all the chaos, eerie notions become relevant. The table that floated halfway across the lawn, yet the items that sat upon the table remained unmoved. The laundry machine placed as if someone pulled it from the wall and turned it 180 degrees. The cup and pill bottle that sits atop the window sill as if someone had come in and placed them there. Yet, it was not a person. It was the creek hundreds of feet from your house. It was the branch a mile away from your property that never saw more than a trickle of water on a good rain.
There isn’t much that can be learned from this sort of situation. “Well, maybe if I had done this” or “we probably shouldn’t have done that”. These thought processes just don’t apply. There is nothing anyone could have done. The Cumberland River alone reaches floodstage at 48 feet. It crested at over 52 feet. What can anyone do? We can assume we are prepared, hold on to life, and hope for the best in it all.
We prevail. As humans, we are natural fighters. We overcome obstacles. We may not think we can, but we always do. And, to know that an entire community is willing and able to do their part to make things as right as they can be made is reassuring.
I know it’s probably not any help at all at this moment to say it, but we shall overcome."
We are flooding. We are flooded. We will be flooded.
It still hasn’t completely sunk in as to what we have just witnessed and to what we will be witnessing more of. The agreeable state of being is in one of a stunned “well, this is a first”.
Parts of Humphreys County are without power. Hickman County as a whole is without power, telephone, and radio towers. Hickman County will soon be without water. With no phones, cell phones, or any other means of communications, Hickman County is alone. The Duck River has risen to the heights of trees. Houses are completely submerged. It is not capable for rescuers to travel in some places due to the fear of what was under the water. A house? A car? A tree? The rest of the road?
The aftermath is described to me by one that did lose a house and all possessions as being as if “someone came into my house, told me to leave, and didn’t allow me to take anything with me. I was being violated. It was like being raped, yet it was a flood.”
The majority of Humphreys County maintained communication capabilities. Word was spreading of what had been damaged and what had survived. The Elementary School was in chaos. The Middle School gymnasium was in water. It was all too much to really accept and assess at the time.
Another dear friend and her mother were effectively forced from her home on Main Street. By the time she was packed and able to leave, the water had risen to nearly the level of the door, having completely overtaken the front porch.
This is just one of many similar stories that would come from the very first weekend in May 2010.
As we are nearly one week from the storm that ravaged Middle Tennessee, the flood waters are only beginning to recede. Losses are being tallied. It is estimated that Davidson County alone will accumulate over 1 billion dollars in damages. Roads are still impassable. Even today, as I traveled from Davidson County through Hickman County, a bridge on Highway 100 had collapsed in the week. I was detoured eventually onto a small dirt road that had once been a paved road before the raging flood waters ripped the pavement from the earth. This road I traveled was being rebuilt as we traveled it. I had to stop a few times to allow the tractor to fill its bucket full of dirt and travel back ahead of me to fill in a passable area.
Highway 230 leading from Hickman County directly into Humphreys County is not passable. From the Nunnelly area of Hickman beyond, several yards of highway are lying in the hay fields beside. Bucksnort, TN, is segregated from every road but the Interstate-40. Bucksnort Road, a dirt path leading from Only into Bucksnort, is in shambles. It was the last hope for some residents of the area.
Communities full of people are unable to leave their homes. Rescuers are unable to reach them. Some that have lost everything they own including the house that is now a mile down the road and a car that is now stuck in a tree at the end of the driveway refuse to leave their properties, for the land and each other are the only things they have left.
It is the sort of situation one never fully understands or can fully sympathize with until they are truly experiencing it. Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans. We saw it on the news and knew it to be a horrific situation. But, one can never fully understand until one is digging through the thick mud and suffering the mold and wretched smells in an area that was once your living room or kitchen.
It is a wasteland. With all the chaos, eerie notions become relevant. The table that floated halfway across the lawn, yet the items that sat upon the table remained unmoved. The laundry machine placed as if someone pulled it from the wall and turned it 180 degrees. The cup and pill bottle that sits atop the window sill as if someone had come in and placed them there. Yet, it was not a person. It was the creek hundreds of feet from your house. It was the branch a mile away from your property that never saw more than a trickle of water on a good rain.
There isn’t much that can be learned from this sort of situation. “Well, maybe if I had done this” or “we probably shouldn’t have done that”. These thought processes just don’t apply. There is nothing anyone could have done. The Cumberland River alone reaches floodstage at 48 feet. It crested at over 52 feet. What can anyone do? We can assume we are prepared, hold on to life, and hope for the best in it all.
We prevail. As humans, we are natural fighters. We overcome obstacles. We may not think we can, but we always do. And, to know that an entire community is willing and able to do their part to make things as right as they can be made is reassuring.
I know it’s probably not any help at all at this moment to say it, but we shall overcome."
Thank you Thom, your words and your heart ring through.
I have seen the pictures and the devastation is truly heartbreaking! I can't believe that some areas of Middle Tennessee have been reduced to that. My heart and prayers are with everyone effected by this tragedy.
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