Early 2019 flooding leaves lasting effects in West TN

HARDIN COUNTY, Tenn. — After historic flooding devastated parts of West Tennessee, many communities are still recovering, months after the water receded.

“February 6 is the initial start date of the flooding in our county when the rain event started, and it progressed all through the month of February,” Hardin County Mayor Kevin Davis said.

For the first three months of the year, West Tennessee dealt with excessive rains.

“And it’s probably towards the end of February when the rivers really got out of the banks,” Davis said.

This February was one of the wettest on record for areas near the Tennessee River, where water rose more than 10 feet.

Hardin County Mayor Kevin Davis says the flooding has had lasting effects.

“It’s different than other disasters, like a tornado, I mean it’s quick and it’s through. But flooding is a long process,” Davis said. “The impact from the rising flood waters in surrounding communities along the Tennessee River, which include Hardin and Decatur counties. Well the flooding took it’s toll on the properties found along the river.”

Decatur County Mayor Mike Creasy says the flooding damaged homes near the river, but recovery is a slow process in many areas.

“One of the dangers we saw here was when the waters receded, they were very slow in receding. They came in fast, but the water levels dropped at a very, very slow rate,” Creasy said.

But once that water did recede, the damage was obvious. Debris, tables, furniture in trees and all the destruction left evidence of just how high the water rose.

In March, Governor Bill Lee stopped in West Tennessee to see the extent of flood damage. More than 80 Tennessee counties reported damage, leading to an executive order for recovery assistance.

“The governor sent the resolution up to the president, and he declared public assistance for us. And we’re in the process now of vetting all the expenses and trying to hope to get some type of reimbursement,” Creasy said.

But for now, most of the assistance focuses on public areas and debris clean-up.

“Matter of fact we’re still picking up the debris. We’re just about done with all the debris that I’ve been aware of,” Creasy said.

“We had bid out through FEMA our debris pick up and are starting that this week, going up picking up the debris that’s been piled up,” Davis said.

Many families were displaced, but only a few dozen people needed assistance finding shelter, and that’s where the Red Cross stepped in.

But county officials both know the flooding could have been much worse and the damage much more severe.

“It was bad. I know it could have been a lot more. I know the TVA kept two feet of water off,” Davis said. “It could have been many more millions of dollars. Two more feet of water would have just been horrific.”

As recovery efforts continue, leaders are now looking to the future.

“We’ll set a meeting in the future to look at the past storm events and what we can do to better ourselves learning from that,” Davis said.

Both mayors tell us they each ran into their own set of issues during the flooding, which included having to send water out to certain communities after the water supply was cut and dealing with electricity due to meters being underwater.

They both say most of the area is fully recovered from the flooding and damage.