Flood Photos

As I write this there are four guys in SWAT Team uniforms in our yard. They have pulled their truck down to the river bank. It's not every day that you see that in Pegram, TN! They are searching for a man who drowned during the flood a couple of miles upstream. This is the fourth time that I have seen various search parties on our property. Please pray that they find him soon so that his family can be at peace and the searching can end.

Here are a few photos of what things looked like around here last week.

This was at about 11 am on Sunday when it really began to sink in that the water was rising fast and getting close. Daniel stood out in the rain praying for our family and property.

I took this right before my dear little vegetable gardens flooded and washed away. Daniel did rescue the frames for me to use again next year. I kept my composure and just focused on what I needed to do for most of the rest of the day. But I did lose it for a moment as I watched these friends be destroyed.

This is a short video of a neighbor's barn floating through our yard. We watched two others make their way past our house during the day.

This is our next-door neighbor's playhouse washing away. Her daddy made it for her as a Christmas present a year-and-a-half ago. She also lost her playset, and her house was flooded with three feet of water.

This video shows what the water looked like right before we left our house. This was roughly 8 hours before the water reached its highest point.

This was a house on our street at 9 am - over 12 hours before the river crested. The water later reached almost to the roof.

This little house was completely underwater later. The outside walls washed out - bricks, drywall, and all.

This is what our house looked like when we left it. Everything on top of the furniture. Daniel's workbench from his workshop was on top of the kitchen table.

B's room

M's room

Our bedroom (I'm not sure what happened when I uploaded this photo.)

This was the road leading into our neighborhood as it appeared Monday morning when we came back. The water had been receding for 12 hours already. At the lowest point there was about 8-10 feet of water over the road.

This is how our backyard looked when we got back. About half of our fence was washed away, and many other sections were leaning. It's amazing what the force of the water can do! Daniel worked so hard on this fence all through the summer last year. We were very blessed, however, to be able to recover most of the missing sections from the field beside our house.

This is how it looks now that the water has gone down. The water reached the top of the arbor at its highest point. You can just barely see the two spots where my raised beds used to be. I lost three crape myrtles from the yard too.

The leaning back portion of the fence.

Lots of debris everywhere.

More debris. We were so thankful that this play set that Daniel is building for Madeline did not wash away. It just needs to be straightened up a bit. We did lose most of her sand that was in her sand box, though. Daniel's workshop is in the background of this picture. It had about 2-3 inches of water in it. It kinda needed to be rebuilt anyway, though. Thankfully, all of his tools are OK.

The house on the left used to have a two car garage beside it. It completely washed away.

Cars on our street.

More photos from our yard after the water went down. The tree line along the side of our yard acted as a barrier for much of the debris that floated away from the homes on our street. We now have a deck, a trampoline, a Volkswagen Golf, lots of tools, and LOTS of JUNK in our yard and in our trees.

Trees down by the river.

This piece of plywood was splintered when it collided with our blue bird house.

The landscape by the river has changed completely. There used to be lots of trees and shade and privacy in this area. We had a porch swing that washed away too. But on the bright side, we have gained a beach! There is about a foot of sand covering this area now. Madeline and I have had great fun searching for shells.

My poor little willow tree looked like this after the flood.

But Daniel helped me to replant it, and now it looks like this! I think it is going to be OK. :)

Trees on the other side of the river have been stripped of their branches and leaves where the water rushed by.

This is what the front of my next-door neighbor's house looks like now because of all the water damage inside. Everything had to be removed from the house. They could hardly save any of their belongings.

This is the view from the back of our two houses. Look how little of a difference there is in elevation.

My Aunt Sarah lives in Bellevue, and she had two feet of water in her house.

The inside of her house after the floors were removed. The drywall came out next. We had so many super volunteers who showed up to help. Some of them we didn't even know!

Aunt Sarah's street. House after house lost everything. Many on this street were TOTALLY covered with water.