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THE LEADER Thursday, May 6, 2010
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Serving All of Tipton County
Established 1886
Volume 124 • No. 27
www.covingtonleader.com
Flood devastates Tipton County By ECHO DAY eday@covingtonleader.com Tipton County was devastated by the worst flooding in its history on Saturday, resulting in an estimated $20.44 million in damages. Approximately 12-20 inches of rain fell all over the county in an eight-hour time frame, an event the Army Corps of Engineers has determined to be a 1,000-year flood. “A 100-year flood event is categorized by the Corps of Engineers to be eight inches of rain in a 24-hour period,” said County Executive Jeff Huffman. “We had 16 inches of rain fall in eight hours in some places, so they’ve classified Saturday’s flood as a 1,000-year event.” The chances of a this type of flood are 1/10 of one percent. Saturday, floodwaters closed down portions of Highway 51 from the county line north of Covington down to Big Creek Drive in Munford. With up to five feet of water covering it, Highway 59 South, which runs between Covington and Mason, was also deemed impassable by 6 a.m. Dozens of roads were closed this week as public works crews and TDOT officials repaired washed-out roadways and repaired bridges. At one point, nearly a quarter of the county’s 160 bridges were closed to traffic and all but 8 have been repaired by press time. Due to potentially unsafe roadways, Tipton County’s 14 schools were closed Monday while engineers conducted bridge inspections, said Tipton County Emergency Management Director Tommy Dunavant. “The county bridges held up as far as the super SEE FLOOD, PAGE A3
Water main breaks in Southwest Tipton By ECHO DAY eday@covingtonleader.com MUNFORD – Despite Saturday's flood, on Sunday morning many residents west of Hwy. 51 found themselves without water. A water main break early Sunday morning led to a disruption in services for approximately 2,000 Poplar Grove Utility District customers. "At about 1:15 a.m. we had a water main at Big Creek wash out," said David Braden, spokesman for the utility company. "We were able to salvage about half our tank." Braden said the company tried to get the word out to customers via Memphis television stations, but with it being the middle of the night, not many people saw the caution until it was too late. "By about 11 or 11:30 a.m. Sunday, our tanks were dry," he said. Crews worked all through the day and night to restore services to customers. By 10 p.m. Sunday, water was again flowing. All customers were back in services by Monday morning. To avoid possible contamination, a boil order was put in place for all customers between the Mississippi River and Hwy. 51 until Tuesday. "When you violate the system pressure and it goes below 20 PSI, when it's restored you have to do bacteriological testing to make sure it's safe to drink," Braden said. Testing conducted Tuesday morning showed the water supply had not been contaminated. Braden said he expect the elevated water tanks to become full again and customers would see normal water pressure by this weekend. "We're in better shape now than we have been," he said. The break was in a water main located at Big Creek, an area that saw more than 10.5 inches of rain in just 8 hours. An estimated 16 inches of rain fell in Munford this weekend. No other water system experienced outages and the boil order was only effective for these customers.
After Saturdayʼs unprecedented rainfall, emergency crews rescued families by boat, bus and other measures. Courtesy photo
Residents evacuate, rescued from floodwaters By ECHO DAY eday@covingtonleader.com As the floodwaters rose Saturday, many Tipton Countians had to evacuate their homes or be rescued by emergency personnel. Candy Lane resident Scott Flanagan, who was home with 10 children Saturday morning, said he woke up to six inches of water inside the first floor of his home. In his garage was 18 inches of water and outside the home, 4-5 feet of flooding. "My truck was underwater, my son's truck was underwater, but we had to get out of here the current was so bad," said Flanagan. In fact, a boat was on top of one of the vehicles in front of his shop and his neighbor's vehicle floated 40 feet. "When we bought this property we were told it didn't flood, but we built it up anyway," he said. "The house sits on top of 55 loads of dirt." On Sunday afternoon,
a trailer filled with carpet and sheet rock sat in Flanagan's front yard. He said the bottom floor of his Burlison home was completely destroyed by flood waters. "We gutted the house … when insurance said they wouldn't fix it," Flanagan said. "We had to take action. It was going to mold, mildew ... we had it gutted in two hours." While Flanagan and his family were able to evacuate their homes on their own, others were not so lucky. Some residents had to be rescued from their homes and taken to shelters. With her mother on dialysis and waters rising, Janette Phelps sought the help of a friend for transportation to Covington's National Guard Armory. "I wasn't worried until I saw the curve (in the road) and the water coming up to the curve," said Phelps, who was staying with her mother on Gilt Edge Gin Road.
"We started getting nervous about it and then came Hydratrek. They carried us to safety." With 12 to 20 inches of rain falling on Tipton County in just eight hours, ditches and waterways could not handle the excess and Tipton County saw the worst flooding in its history. Floodwaters closed down portions of Highway 51 from the county line north of Covington down to Big Creek Drive in Munford. Dozens of roads were closed this week as public works crews and TDOT officials repaired washed-out roadways and repaired bridges. Some stranded motorists and families were evacuated by boats, school buses and Hydratrek amphibious all-terrain vehicles. "It was devastating, there were a lot of people in distress and a lot of animals swimming around," said Hydratrek salesman Craig Simonton. Using innovative
all-terrain amphibious vehicles, employees from Covington-based Hydratrek assisted in the rescue of more than 60 people and animals in Tipton County and Millington. In addition to Hydratrek, all of the county's emergency agencies assisted in the rescue effort and disaster response during Saturday's natural disaster: • Covington-Tipton County Emergency Management • Covington, Brighton and Munford/Atoka fire departments and the county's volunteer departments from Charleston, Mason, Three Star, Garland, Gilt Edge and QuitoDrummonds • Tennessee Highway Patrol; Tipton County Sheriff's Office; Atoka, Brighton, Covington, Mason and Munford police departments; Tipton County constables SEE VICTIMS, PAGE A2
Clean-Up/Fix-Up rescheduled By TIFFANY HOLLAND tholland@covingtonleader.com After several cancellations due to the past week’s “May Day Flood,” the sixth annual Clean Up/Fix Up Covington is scheduled for Saturday, May 8 from 8 a.m. At the end of the week, get out your walking shoes and sunscreen and invite a few friends and join the City of Covington for its annual walk across Covington. The yearly event celebrates
Earth Day and urges residents to clean up their property. City workers will be doing extra routes next week to pick up debris left alongside the curb. “We will have the trash trucks run continuously during the week in a concentrated effort to pick up residential trash,” said Robert M. Simpson, director of Public Works. “Every year more residents come out and help to make Covington a beautiful and cleaner city.” The clean up will begin at 8 a.m. at the city maintenance shop located at 410 E. Ripley
Street. Upon registration, volunteers will be given a t-shirt, garbage grabber and assigned a team leader and areas of the city to clean. At the conclusion of the clean up, volunteers will meet back at the city maintenance shop at noon for lunch, sponsored by Barker Brothers Waste Inc. Door prizes, donated by Covington businesses, will be given away during lunch. City residents may call 4767191 to schedule a trash pick-up for larger items.
Area events This week’s This week’sFeatured featuredChurch: church: Covington • Barretville • Millington • Collierville South Tipton • South Covington Morgage Offices: South Tipton • Millington • Arlington • Collierville
FRONT.indd 1
Hebron Community Church
Area events 5/8/10 10 a.m. Dunlap SpringFest
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