CENTERVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – The recent rains caused plenty of flooding along the Duck River in south and west Middle Tennessee. Though the waters have receded in Shelbyville, downstream in Centerville in Hickman County the river is still in moderate flood stage and has only fallen a little over a foot since Tuesday.
River Park, where plenty of ball fields and the “Farmer’s Market at River Park” are located, continues to be inundated.
Hickman County Emergency Management Director Jim Tanner explained how the flooding has unfolded over the last month.
“It’s been a struggle really, to try to be prepared, because as the rain has come in, it has not come in solid and stayed that way,” Tanner said. “We’ve had a lot of times of hard rain to where it’s slacked off to slight rain, to none at all, and then back and forth. So, that’s caused the water to rise and fall very quickly, and it’s kept doing it, kept doing it, kept doing it, on the smaller creeks, and that’s caused a lot of damage to our road infrastructure.”
“Here at River Park, it’s been interesting because once the creeks went down into the river, it’s caused the river flooding, and with all of that rain, it’s caused it to drop a lot slower than we would like it to,” Tanner continued. “Normally, we would start seeing grass and stuff around the farmer’s market area a lot sooner than we would have right now. But it’s definitely causing the river flooding coming up and all the creeks and stuff draining into the river, it’s definitely caused the Duck River to drop a lot slower than we would want it to.”
Roadways across the county were also vulnerable to damage from the floodwaters.
“We’ve had a lot of problems with the chert roads getting eaten out, and we’ve got hundreds of miles of roads,” Tanner explained. “Our schools made a wise decision of closing yesterday so that we could get some responders out to get some ground truth to see how they look before we put school buses on them, or fire engines or ambulances.”
Hickman County Schools resumed classes Wednesday, but eleven buses had to be rerouted and parents brought some students from a couple of areas buses could not reach.