It was about two hours after sunrise when Debra Ashton found herself in a tide of floodwater that swept violently through her neighborhood in Waverly.
And five days later, she’s still processing how heavy rain uprooted her neighbors from their homes on Aug. 21. Destructive flooding sparked by 17 inches of rain crippled hundreds of houses, dozens of commercial properties and killed at least 19 people.
The damage was so bad that President Joe Biden declared a major disaster and directed federal aid to the local recovery process. Some residents say they’re preparing to rebuild while others are remembering the lives of deceased loved ones.
Waverly has a history of flooding. Ashton says she got through them in 2010 and 2019. The water barely reached the inside of her home, which is why she thought she had time to gather some belonging despite being rushed by friends to evacuate.
But this most recent flash flooding was different.
Caroline Eggers WPLN NewsA building was completely washed from its foundation during deadly flooding in Waverly, Tennessee.
“I go back in, get my keys to my truck, and of course by the time I came back out, the water had rose so much,” says Ashton. “And he’d left [and] of course she’d left. There I was.”
Ashton then looked to her neighbor’s home to seek refuge. It would be a safe location, she figured, because the house was a bit taller.
“She had pillars on her porch and I climbed up on the top of those pillars. I thought, ‘Well it won’t ever get this high,’ ” she says.
“Well, it got that high.”
Ashton says she stayed calm and prayed to God. She also asked for His help getting to higher ground. That’s when the Ford Ranger in her driveway provided a moment of relief.
“Well, suddenly it starts floating,” she says. “And instead of floating straight back, between us, it floats over to her porch.”
Ashton got on top of the truck, but it wasn’t long before the water started rising. She was swept off and pushed under the flood waters. That’s when she grabbed a log that appeared and floated about four blocks before losing her grip. She went under water a few more times before swimming and being pulled onto a rooftop.
She was eventually rescued by a private helicopter pilot, along with other stranded residents like Angela Reeves. Her husband Joe Reeves, a U.S. Army veteran, was swept away outside of their home after pushing open the door to free his trapped family.
Remembering Loved Ones
@mindseverybodiesbusiness #waverly #flood #tn #rip Please continue to pray and send good vibes ❤️
“They didn’t think they were going to make it out,” says Rachel Reeves, one of Joe Reeves’s seven children, who spoke with her mom and sister who survived the flooding.
“My mom has stage 4 cancer, so she couldn’t have got the door open.”
Courtesy Rachel Reeves Joe Reeves, left, and Angela Reeves
Her parents, she says, are originally from Tennessee City in Dickson County. They had been living in Waverly for only a few weeks before the flood came through.
Another resident swept away by the flood was 7-year-old Lucy Lane Conner. She was a student at McEwen Elementary School.
Samantha Tuten, her cousin, says she was the glue that kept her family together.
“All of our lives kind of evolved around her,” says Tuten. “She was everything to us. She was our baby”
Tuten describes her cousin as a clever, cheerful child who would spark full conversations with pizza delivery workers. She says she loved dancing, science and going down rabbit holes listening to Justin Bieber songs. One of her favorites was the song “Anyone.” She also had a soft spot for actor Michael B. Jordan.
The girl was trapped with her mother in an apartment building during the flood, Tuten says.
“The water was all the way up to the roof. My aunt had been pinned to the ceiling from the water and a wall had collapsed,” she explains. “The water came in and took Lucy out.”
Tuten says the girl’s mom called her dad for help before the water rose. But he was unable to reach them in time, and that the girl was gone when he arrived. He lives about 20 minutes away in New Johnsonville.
Courtesy Samantha Tuten Lucy Lane Connor
The girl, she says, was found miles away from her home and identified at a hospital on Sunday afternoon.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” says Tuten. “It’s hard for us to make any plans without Lucy.”
Waverly is a close-knit community with under 5,000 residents. Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis says that’s made the death toll even more difficult to process. He says it’ll take a long time for residents to recover.
“These are people we know. These are people’s families that we know,” says Davis. “These are people that we grew up with. This is just people of our small county.”
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