(News Terupdate) - Flooding from two days of heavy rain in Tennessee is thought to be responsible for at least 11 deaths there, the Nashville and state emergency management offices said Sunday.
The Mayor's Office of Emergency Management in Nashville announced Sunday night that it had confirmed five fatalities in Davidson County -- which encompasses Nashville -- thought to be flood-related.
Earlier Sunday, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said it had confirmed seven flood-related fatalities throughout the state, including -- at the time of that announcement -- one in Davidson County.
Up to 20 inches of rain has fallen in parts of the state since Saturday and more was expected Sunday.
The rains have washed out major roads, caused evacuations, and prompted dam failures. In Nashville, Tennessee, alone, more than 600 people were rescued from the water this weekend, Mayor Karl Dean said at a press conference Sunday afternoon.
iReport: Experiencing the Tennessee floods? Send photos, video
"All of our major creeks and the Cumberland River are near flood level, if not at flood level," Dean said, referring to the waterway that bisects Nashville. "The ground is entirely saturated, and the rain continues to fall. There's nowhere for the water to go."
The western two thirds of Tennessee has seen between 6 and 20 inches of rain since Saturday, with flooding spreading to Kentucky on Sunday.
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Dean said Sunday that more rain has fallen in Nashville in the last 24 hours than has ever been recorded in the city.
"We are still at this point in rescue stage and will be until the water begins to subside," he said.
Dean urged residents to stay home Sunday and, if they could, to skip work on Monday, when Nashville schools will be closed.
The floods shut down parts of several interstates around Nashville on Saturday and Sunday, including interstates 24, 40 and 65.
An emergency shelter set up at Nashville's Lipscomb University was at capacity with approximately 200 people, Dean said Sunday. The Red Cross reported approximately 400 people in 22 shelters throughout Tennessee.
The floods left 36,000 houses around Nashville without power on Sunday and led to the evacuation of three area nursing homes, affecting over 250 patients, Dean said.
While some streams around Nashville were starting to recede on Sunday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was planning to release dammed upstream water Sunday night, which could cause more flooding around Nashville, city emergency management chief Stephen Halford said.
The water needed to be released to keep the Army Corps equipment safe, Halford said.
The National Weather Service issued a civil emergency message Sunday to central and western Tennessee, telling people to stay off roads because too many are closed and people are getting stranded.
The National Weather Service also issued a flood emergency Sunday for much of central Kentucky -- where tens of thousands were trying to get home after this weekend's Kentucky Derby -- and in south central Indiana.
In Louisville, Kentucky, the National Turnpike and Gene Snyder Freeway were closed on Sunday.
In addition to flooding fatalities, one Tennessean died over the weekend in a tornado in Hardeman County, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said Sunday.
Source : CNN
Friday, May 7, 2010
Eleven dead as record flooding engulfs Tennessee
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