Preparations underway in Rives for upcoming storm

OBION COUNTY, Tenn.– After one community had to evacuate due to high waters earlier this year, they have now began preparations for another storm.

In February Rives, Tennessee experienced a flood that resulted in their fire department saving residents from their homes. They’re repairing the levees that began leaking after the storm.

“Thankfully right now we are not saturated, the rivers are currently not full, the bottoms are empty. I believe we can handle a lot of rain. Last time it was a perfect storm, rivers were full and the ground was saturated. If it falls over 3 to 4 days I think maybe we’ll be okay,” Campbell Rice, fire chief for Rives, Tennessee, shares.
Army Core of Engineers and the River Basin group visited Rives Tuesday afternoon to repair the holes. A team member with Senator Bill Hagerty’s office also stopped and visited the levee.

“They learned that it was not Army Core levee it was West Tennessee River Basin levee. The River Basin authority came out here this morning and fixed one hole in the levee. I just wanted to come out here and check it on behalf of Senator Hagerty to see what it was like and get pictures of the repair,” Ford Hawkins, with Senator Bill Hagerty’s office, shares.

Over the next three days meteorologists have predicted thunderstorms and flooding. So it was important that those levees were fixed.

“So, we’re hoping that takes care of that. We have another spot that’s behind the fire station that they’re working on trying to get it filled up now so that we can hopefully keep that water out of the city,” says Chief Rice.

The Rives community has worked together to improve another end of the levee.

“It was probably about 80 feet long and the farmer was able to come down here and he repaired that levee himself,” Rice shares. Fire chief Campbell Rice is requesting that if residents are asked to evacuate that they will do so, instead of having to be rescued. However, his team has a plan in place.

“Fortunately, most of the people that were affected by the flood have gotten back in their house. They’ve gotten a lot of their repairs done. It would be sad for them to have to go through that again,” he says.

The River Basin group also provided some tools to the fire station.

“So with having the help of two extra pumps and the levees repaired, we’re hoping it’ll be much better than it was last time,” Hawkins shares.

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