Obion River floods homes within miles of its riverbanks

OBION, Tenn. — In a followup, though the rain has stopped, the Obion River is still rising — and that has many resident worried.

“Please just stay away from the rivers,” said Obion County EMA director Danny Jowers. “Please just stay away from the waters until it goes down.”

Water rose into homes along the Obion River Monday. The river has reached a moderate flood stage and according to the National Weather Service won’t return to its banks until after Friday.

“Before we went to sleep on Saturday night, the water levels seemed to be just fine. It was about three inches around the bottom stoop of the step,” resident Michael Morgan said. “So we got up Sunday morning and it had gained in elevation tremendously.”

The actual Obion River is about a mile upstream. Residents said it’s about four feet higher than it should be, and they’re expecting it to rise about another foot before waters start to recede.

“The rivers right now are at max. In fact, they’re over max,” Jowers said. “They’re still over filling the bank even after, I guess, this started Friday. So the rivers are very dangerous.”

Morgan said not many people live in the area that was underwater. Most families decided to leave over the weekend.

“I seem to be the only one that seemed to be silly enough to stay a little bit longer than I should have,” Morgan said. “This morning, I had the city of Obion help us out. They came out with a boat. Got my wife and dog out, some personal belongings.”

Morgan said he is concerned for his RV but understands all he can do now is wait.

“After this hopefully I can be secure enough,” he said. “They’re putting me up in a hotel for a couple of days. This will recede and we can get back in there and I can get back to my job.”

By the time the Obion River crests this week, it’s forecast to exceed 39 feet, which is just below the record of 42 feet.