NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The dark waters of the Cumberland River slowly started to ebb Tuesday as residents who frantically fled the deadly flash floods returned home to find mud-caked floors and soggy furniture. Rescuers prayed they would not find more bodies as the floodwaters receded.
The river and its tributaries had flooded parts of middle Tennessee after a record-breaking weekend storm dumped more than a foot of rain in two days, rapidly spilling water into homes, roads and some of Music City’s best-known attractions.
At least 28 people were killed in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky by floodwaters or tornadoes. Water submerged parts the Grand Ole Opry House, and the nearby Opryland Hotel could be closed for up to six months.
The flash flooding caught many by surprise, and efforts to warn residents to not drive on flooded streets were hampered by power outages. As the water began to recede, bodies were recovered late Monday from homes, a yard and a wooded area outside a Nashville supermarket.
By Tuesday, the flash floods were blamed in the deaths of 17 people in Tennessee alone, including nine in Nashville. Authorities initially said 10 people were killed by floods in Nashville, but one of the deaths was by natural causes.
Hundreds of people had been rescued by boat and canoe from their flooded homes over the past few days. Those rescue operations were winding down in Nashville on Tuesday, though emergency management officials were checking a report of a house floating in one neighborhood and trying to see whether anyone was in it.
It remained unclear how many — if any — people were missing in Tennessee. Authorities in south-central Kentucky searched Tuesday for a kayaker who was last seen Monday afternoon in the swollen Green River.
“Those in houses that have been flooded in some of those more remote areas, do we suspect we will find more people? Probably so,” Nashville Deputy Fire Chief Kim Lawson said. “We certainly hope that it’s not a large number.”
After reaching its highest point since 1937, the Cumberland began to recede just in time to spare Nashville’s only remaining water treatment plant.
