The Flood of 2010

This is my first post in several months.  We were hit by the floods that ravaged the Nashville area on May 2.  The church we were renovating was caved in, our Honda car was totaled and the little "guest cabin" we were living in was washed away.  There was a river of water that covered Hurricane Creek Road three feet deep.  The church had been in that location for almost 100 years and water had never been inside it before.  They say this was a 500 year flood. 

We waded through knee-deep water early in the morning on Sunday May 2 with our two cats and the clothes on our backs.  The creek overflowed its banks about 6:00 am and by 6:30 it was lapping at our door.  We drove our truck to higher ground and watched as our possessions floated away.  We stayed over night in the truck cab, then spent the next four nights in a tent because we could not cross the creek in the truck.  The tent had been in the storage room near the church, which was flooded but did not float away.  Our refrigerator, which had been just outside the church, floated down the creek about 1/4 mile and we were able to salvage some food from it.

The first picture shows the front of the church and the Honda (after spending two days digging it out by hand).  Next is the back of the church.  The cabin floated down the creek and landed about 1/8 mi down, on the opposite side and then fell over a few days later.  The last picture shows a typical view of piled up debris down the creek.  The box is one of our dressers from the cabin.

This has been difficult to write about and I have been putting it off.  We got a new computer about two weeks ago and just got back connected to the internet on Wed.  We are renting a house in Linden, about 10 miles from the property, and hope to move back by September.  Actually, we are much better off than some of our neighbors, who had 1 foot of water in much more expensive homes.  We applied to FEMA and were very pleased with how they responded.  So, life goes on.

We are now building a small house up the hill from the creek.  It is 20 ft by 32 ft, about the same dimensions as the church, except it will have a full basement and a 1/2 loft.

This is a view of the new house site from about where the cabin had been.  The floodwaters got about halfway up this hill towards the house site.  The excavators are digging the footers for the foundation.

This is the concrete being poured for the slab and the concrete block wall for the basement going up.  This is where we are today.  Stay tuned!