How the Shepherds survived the flooding

Many friends have asked how we fared during the recent historic flooding in Tennessee.  Overall we were very blessed with everyone safe and very little damage.  Here's how it affected us.

It started early Saturday morning with rain and thunderstorms.  And just kept going and going and going.  The kids thought it was great fun to play in it.  "Kids" meaning Bryan and Sienna, and to some extent Colby.

 The kids' soccer games were canceled in the morning, so Bryan spent the time putting together a glider that we bought the night before, with lots of helpers.  Wanting to get out of the house, we went out to eat for lunch then rushed through the Adventure Science Center for about 45 minutes before needing to return to make it in time for a birthday party for Sienna.  At this point it was still just a rainy day to us.

As we were coming home we saw huge flooding along the side of the freeway.  We knew things were serious when we passed the YMCA about a mile and a half from our house and saw the flooded parking lot.  We could barely see the tops of some of the cars.  This was where Sienna's birthday party was supposed to be at.  It was obviously canceled.

There was a ton of water on the road leading to our house (Wilson Pike) that we drove through, and shortly afterward the power steering in the van went out.  It was actually from an engine belt that came completely off that left us with only one car for a few days (a 5-seater car, when we're now a family of 6 plus Grandma!)  We also noticed a leak in the van on the passenger side near the feet. 
 
We were worried about our house but it stayed dry.  The water from our sloped driveway streamed to the lawn instead of into our garage.  There were streams on three sides of the house, which is typical during major downpours, although the water level was much higher than usual, rushing quite fast and deep.  We also had standing water in the yard.  It seems like anyone with a basement had flooding.  Bryan spent a few hours in the afternoon helping a neighbor move things from their basement and vacuum it out.

During a lull in the rain Sienna and Bryan went outside to play and walk around in the water.  Eventually they got some Styrofoam from the glider packaging and made boats to race along in the streams.  

At around 6 Sunday morning the tornado siren went off.  We went back to sleep and sometime later the power went off.  It stayed off until around 2 pm.  Everyone was encouraged to stay at home and not drive anywhere.  Church was canceled as well as school the next day.  Late that night a large, rain-soaked tree branch fell against the house.  It fell completely to the ground a couple days later, pulling off part of the gutter.  We're still not sure what kind of damage it did to the roof.

 
I was scheduled to go into the hospital Sunday night for an induction.  The hospital called to cancel (they had flooding as well) and told us to call on Monday.  So the next day we drove downtown to see what else the storm washed up...

In the midst of having a new baby in the family Bryan was left with the projects of fixing our van, cutting down a tree, as well as trying to meet a grant deadline at work.  He's been kind of busy this week.

So even though the storm affected us, we were definitely blessed, especially considering the many homes that were completely ruined and the lives that were lost.  We appreciate the calls and emails from friends and family out of state checking to see how we fared.