Residents along Whites Creek in Bordeaux returned to their North Nashville homes Friday morning after evacuating overnight. The remnants of Hurricane Harvey dumped enough water locally to propel the creek into flood stage. The low-lying neighborhood has become accustomed to fleeing floodwaters.
Emergency responders went door-to-door Thursday night to tell folks to leave. Retiree Karl Warfield says they didn’t have any convincing to do with him.
“I was already gone,” he says.
But Warfield was hoping the high-water wouldn’t be a problem again. Since the devastating flood of 2010, the city has been working on drainage in the area and even tearing down houses in the floodway.
“I thought that the flooding would not happen the way it did before because they’ve been doing work laying large pipes,” he says. “I thought this was to prevent that from happening. But [no].”
Warfield came back in the daylight to find his doorstep coated in mud and debris stuck in his fence. He says he won’t be spending the night at home again until the rain stops.
And in the meantime, Warfield says he’s thinking about buying a boat just in case.