Recovery, hardship mark one-year anniversary of March 2021 flood in South Nashville

This story was updated.

Survivors and volunteers gathered in South Nashville's Plaza Mariachi on Saturday to mark one year of recovery from floods and severe storms that devastated swaths of the city in March 2021.

In a 24-hour span between March 27 and March 28 last year, more than 7 inches of rain dumped over Nashville and Middle Tennessee. The resulting flash floods swept through hundreds of homes, devastating Southern Davidson County. Six people died in Middle Tennessee, including four people in Nashville. More than 500 buildings were damaged.

It was the worst flood Nashville had seen since May 2010.

"We want to remember with celebration those who have recovered," Pastor Morgan Gordy said Saturday during the event hosted by Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, a coalition of local organizations and nonprofits that joined forces to help Middle Tennesseans through two years mired in disaster.

About 700 families affected by the flood have received assistance and gone through the recovery process, Gordy said, but others "are still waiting for recovery to come."

Steve Venick has served survivors of several disasters in Middle Tennessee as a disaster case manager with Disaster Recovery Connection. The service is a project of the Tennessee Western Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist Church, in partnership with the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

Venick said 24 cases from the March 2021 flood remain open, representing 66 people whose recovery from last year's devastation is ongoing. Most of these families are still in need of home repairs, reconstruction, mold remediation or vehicle repairs or replacement.

Disaster Recovery Connection is partnering with Hands On Nashville for reconstruction projects, especially for families who, like many Tennessee families, did not have home flood insurance.

"It just takes so long," Venick said. "If you haven't been impacted by a disaster, a lot of folks don't understand, it takes at least a year to two years — and for some, often longer — to actually recover from something like this."

Unseen damage was terrible

It took Sasha Hudgens and their daughter more than two months to move back into their home in a condominium association on Harding Place.

The water was knee-deep when it rushed through the neighborhood, Hudgens said. It steadily rose to waist height, but within 30 minutes, it was gone, leaving the community looking deceivingly normal aside from debris. But the water ravaged the condominiums' electrical systems, leaving residents off the grid for weeks as they waited for specialized repairs.

Hudgens' second-floor unit was untouched by water, but their car was destroyed.

"When you're stuck and you have no power and you have your food just going bad in the refrigerator minute by minute — I think that was the scariest thing for me ... feeling trapped and not having a way to get around," Hudgens said.

It took time, but Hudgens' comprehensive auto insurance helped them secure a car. Hudgens, their daughter, two dogs and a cat spent weeks in paying for other accommodation with the help of friends and family. In the meantime, Hudgens worked hard to feed their neighbors and became a spokesperson for the community, meeting with organizations and city officials. Hudgens helped coordinate and distribute donations of emergency items. Needs changed daily.

Hudgens said they are "absolutely" closer to their neighbors now, many of whom they did not know before the flood. While many people have repaired their condos, units remain that have not been fixed.

"The cost just became too great for people to go find somewhere to stay and fix their home," Hudgens said.

South Nashville's 'catastrophic' flooding

The flooding damaged multiple homeless encampments, leaving dozens of people displaced and without their belongings. Two people experiencing homelessness — 64-year-old veteran Frederick Richards and 46-year-old Melissa Conquest — died.

The flood also took the lives of four others, including 70-year-old Garry Cole of South Nashville and 65-year-old Douglas Hammond, a devoted father and avid golfer.

During Saturday's event, a vase of six yellow tulips sat illuminated on the stage — one tulip representing each life lost. The tulips, bulbs still intact, will be replanted, Diane Janbakhsh, founder and executive director of the Hispanic Family Foundation said.

"There is a miracle in each one of us," she said. "Some of us that are able to help, but also those that are in the process of the crisis ... we have a potential to grow."

Bilingual singer-songwriter Marta Albarracin performed a song she wrote in Spanish, capturing the turmoil of unexpected loss and the strength of rebuilding.

"A large part of our Latin community was really affected, so thank you for supporting us, because most of us had a big story just to get here, and then having to start again is a really big and admirable thing," Albarracin said.

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Venick, who also speaks Spanish, said the South Nashville communities hurt most by the flooding were primarily Spanish-speaking, and several families were living here without documentation. Venick and others worked with them to navigate the process of applying for FEMA assistance, which is available to households with at least one U.S. citizen living there.

FEMA representatives attended recovery events at Plaza Mariachi. Venick set up at the Hispanic Family Foundation's offices for several months to help families through the system.

Many of his clients were renters in need of advocacy with landlords who "maybe weren't doing all of the necessary things they needed to do (for) mold remediation and repairs," he said. One of his open cases involves an ongoing legal dispute between a tenant and landlord.

Many people affected by the flood work in construction and were left with ruined vehicles and no alternative transportation, Venick said. Family members struggled to get to work.

"In a community where a lot of folks sometimes are already struggling to get by, they don't have money in the budget for full comprehensive auto (insurance)," he explained.

An stressed used car market made it even more difficult to find affordable used cars.

Venick said floods don't often get the same community response as other disasters, including the March 2020 tornado. But it was "catastrophic" for South Nashville, he said. Just 2 or 3 inches of water in a home can mean tens of thousands of dollars of repairs.

"With a flood, the homes are still there, most of them are standing," he said. "But they're completely destroyed ... with a flood, it affects the entire home."

Reach reporter Cassandra Stephenson at ckstephenson@tennessean.com or at (731) 694-7261. Follow Cassandra on Twitter at @CStephenson731.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Recovery, hardship mark one-year anniversary of March 2021 flood