Nashville flood map6/30/2023 ![]() ![]() We lost one of our board members in the Leipers Fork area from this flash flooding. The rainstorms turned 4-foot wide streams that are typically only inches deep into gulley washers that overtopped low crossings and swept cars away. There were 4 fatalities just on the Harpeth and over $480,000 million in direct economic damages, according to the Army Corps of Engineer’s 2012 Harpeth River Reconnaissance Study prepared in response to the flood. The devastation and loss of life across the entire length of the Harpeth was driven by the incredible volume and intensity of the rain and flood waters. The previous record was 47.6 feet on March 15, 1975. The flood level of 51.86 feet was the highest level recorded since the Cumberland River dam system was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Cumberland River did not crest downtown until Monday, May 3, at 6pm. High water marks studied by the US Geological Survey show that the flood levels in Bellevue were 33.32 feet– almost 9 feet over the record! In Kingston Springs flood waters crested at 46 feet, which is 14 feet higher than the 1948 record!įlash flooding in creeks like Mill Creek at I-24, the West Harpeth in Leiper’s Fork, and along the Harpeth happened on Saturday and Sunday, while the Cumberland River flood raise began later as the rain moved east. The dramatic increase was seen downriver in Nashville and Kingston Springs, Cheatham County, where flood waters washed away both measuring stations where data has been collected since 1920. In downtown Franklin, the flood crested at 35.32 feet, a few inches over 35.14 feet. Flooding along the entire Harpeth River broke the previous flood record set in 1948 at all 3 flood gage measuring stations. The entire Harpeth River was overwhelmed by the flood storm from the headwaters in Eagleville, in Rutherford county, through Franklin and Williamson County, the Bellevue Area in Nashville, and through the heart of Cheatham County. Rivers and creeks in the region flooded at different times and sometimes more than once. ![]() 13.57 inches of rain fell between May 1-2, a new record that over DOUBLED the previous record of 6.68 inches. The Nashville region experienced its new all-time rainiest day (Saturday May 1) and third rainiest day (Sunday May 2) on back-to- back days, according to the Nashville weather Service based on records going back to the 1870s. The May 2010 Flood Set New Records : The Entire Harpeth River was Overwhelmedįor anyone living in the greater Nashville region May 1-3, the back-to-back recording breaking torrential rains caused catastrophic flooding that few had experienced. It is vital to put solutions in place that can prevent future devastation of people’s livelihoods, economies, and vital natural systems by rebuilding resilience into our communities and lifestyles to be able to handle the more extreme weather and climatic conditions that we all now face. It took incredible effort by people from all walks of life to pull together to solve immediate problems that put people’s lives and futures at risk. Now there are two current disasters (the March tornadoes, and the global COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home emergency) that prevent the greater Nashville and middle Tennessee communities from coming together to honor the heroic efforts of so many people that “rose” to the occasion back in May 2010.īut the themes are the same then as they are now. For the many of us who were here and experienced this tragic and devastating disaster, it is hard to convey the enormity of it to people who weren’t here. It is the 10 th anniversary of the historic May 2010 flood that hit the greater Nashville region and swamped the entire Harpeth River system. See our Water Flood Recovery Project page for details and photos. Retrospective by Dorene Bolze, President and CEO “The Waterway Flood Recovery Project: 2010-2012 and Embracing the New Normal of More Extreme Weather” 10 Years After the Historic May 2010 Flood ![]()
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