NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A backyard creek became a raging river, damaging several properties in East Nashville from Monday night’s storms.
Homeowners said what happened Monday night was a first for their neighborhood.
Metro Water Services says the storm system designed could not handle the amount of rain that came down in such a short time, but some of the residents FOX 17 News spoke with blame the culverts and storm drain.
Chelsea Moubarak lives on Fairwin Avenue in East Nashville.
The water was gushing just all the way down the driveway, all the way down the side of my house, all the way through my backyard,” Moubarak said.
Moubarak says it started around 5:30 p.m. and adds most of the water was off her property by 7:00 p.m.
She says she’s never seen anything like this in her neighborhood.
“In the 10 years since these three homes were built, which they were all built at the same time, we had never seen it overflow like that before which makes us wonder was it clogged somewhere,” Moubarak explained.
FOX 17 News reached out to Metro Water Services to see what they believe the issue was with Monday night’s storm.
“We had almost half an inch of rain in a 10-minute period. That is an enormous amount of rain in a very small time period. And unfortunately, it was more than the system could handle,” said Sonia Allman, Strategic Communications Manager at Metro Water Services.
Allman says they clean and monitor storm drains frequently and don’t believe the drains were clogged.
Despite the cause, East Nashville residents like Moubarak are now dealing with the damage.
“The gravel and the sand is all moved around so we’re going to have to redo this area,” Moubarak said.
Moubarak is hoping this does not happen again, especially with more rain expected Wednesday.
Allman says more flooding would depend on how quickly the water recedes. The city says if you want your storm drain or culverts checked you can submit a request through hubNashville.
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