NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Mill Creek and its surrounding communities are bracing for more rain this weekend after the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a Flood Watch through the weekend.
Mill Creek has a history of floods, including 2010, 2019, and the most recent flood of 2021, when flash flooding took over a restaurant supply warehouse and sent plastic and debris down the creek.
Four years later, cleanup efforts are wrapping up.
“The banks were beautiful from the places that it was overwhelming when you looked at the amount of debris from the flood were just back to their natural almost pristine state,” District 16 Council Member Ginny Welsch explained.
Welsch told News 2 that any remaining trash in the creek is not from the 2021 flood.
“That would have cost Metro money to expand that cleanup, and that money is not in this year’s budget,” Welsch said.
This weekend, NWS is forecasting that the Creek near Woodbine will rise to fifteen feet, at least a foot above the flood stage.
Flooding is anticipated on residential properties along Drummond Drive and the mobile home park on Philfre Court near where Murfreesboro Pike begins. The flooding is expected to expand into properties along Wimpole Drive, Currey Road, and at the intersection of Old Glenrose Avenue and Thompson Lane.
The council member for that area said if flooding should occur, she feels any leftover debris would be minimal.
“I feel a lot better about what might happen in another flooding situation just because of the sheer amount of debris that has been removed from the creek,” Welsch said.
Mill Creek at Antioch is forecasted to rise against the flood stage of fourteen feet.
NWS expects one to five inches of rain in Middle Tennessee throughout the weekend.
“If you are in that area and you see the water levels start to rise, you know, keep an eye on it, and if there is still additional rain in the forecast, that water may continue to rise,” Service Hydrologist for Nashville NWS, James LaRosa, said.
“For the main stem part of Mill Creek usually it takes a good couple of hours to really kind of respond,” LaRosa added.
A neighbor to the creek said he survived the 2021 flood, which brought water up to the edge of his house, but his neighbors had flood waters in their backyards and inside their homes.
“Two of the houses I know specifically have been flooded at least in the past decade or so and had to be completely gutted out,” said Mill Creek-Woodbine resident Chuck Starks.
Starks told News 2 this time that he is playing this weekend’s rain event by ear.
“How do you prepare for a flood?” Starks said. “We definitely got some notifications that there is potentially going to be some big flood waters coming through. I think the only preparation we can do is letting other people know.”
Starks added, “Unless you leave, that’s the only other thing that I think you can do besides leave the area, but for some of us, that might be an option; for some of us, it is not.”
The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) will have crews monitoring known flood-prone areas and creeks, with Nashville Fire and OEM swift water teams prepared and ready to respond if needed.
Metro Water Services (MWS) stormwater crews cleared clogged storm drains on Friday. However, MWS does not anticipate massive home flooding like the 2010 flood.
But officials are reminding residents to avoid roads they know are prone to flooding, especially on darkly lit roads. If you do come across a flooded area, turn around and don’t drown.
Don’t forget to take the power and reliability of the WKRN Weather Authority with you at all times by downloading the News 2 Storm Tracker app.
