Counselors Still Canvassing Hard Hit Neighborhoods a Year After Floods

Monday there will be commemorations and even celebrations to mark Middle Tennessee’s recovery from last year’s floods. But it’s a grim anniversary for some who were psychologically paralyzed from the historic rainfall and the damage it left behind.

Even a year later, a team of 15 counselors is still canvassing hard-hit neighborhoods, asking how flood victims are coping. Becky Stoll is Director of Crisis Services at Centerstone, which is overseeing the federally funded program. She says as recently as last week they were knocking on doors in neighborhoods around the Harpeth River, as it rose once again.

“They still unearth people weekly that we’ve never met. Some of them are back in their homes. Some of them still, if they’re living somewhere else, they’re coming back to check on their homes. But we’re still on the ground and potentially could be on the ground for a few more months.”

Stoll says post traumatic stress related to the flood can be severe. Centerstone reports eight suicides related to the flood. Stoll says her team had first hand knowledge of six who killed themselves. They weren’t people who had lost loved ones in the storms, she says. Those who killed themselves couldn’t cope with what she calls “their new reality” of rebuilding.