Tennessee Receives Its Second Major Deluge in 2010

Tennessee Receives Its Second Major Deluge in 2010

by Eric Normand, The Normand Post, August 19th, 2010

 

As 2010 has delivered a continuous assault of extreme weather disasters around the Globe – the heat wave in Russia, the floods in Pakistan, China, Europe, and America, the continuing “1000 year” drought in Australia – the state of Tennessee was just hit with its second round of significant flooding in just four months.

The Tennessee Deluge of 2010 was grossly underreported by US media, despite being one of the most significant rainstorms ever recorded in the U.S. During this thousand year deluge a staggering 13.57 inches of rain was reported at Nashville international Airport in just 36 hours, with some areas of the state receiving up to 19 inches of rain. The extreme weather event was the result of several fronts stalling over the region.

This week another extreme deluge occurred in middle Tennessee marking a return to this disturbing trend that is becoming all too frequent in this new world of man-made climate change. On Thursday, August 19 NOAA reported up to 11 inches of rain in a 48 hour period in some parts of middle Tennessee with significant flooding occurring at multiple locations across the state. Again, this extreme rainfall was the result of a stalling front.

An I-report on CNN sent this video from Cookeville Tennessee where flash flooding occurred Wednesday morning. The report stated:

“Floodwaters blocked roads, washed out bridges and submerged homes in water.” The I reporter said he had “never seen flooding so bad in the entire 15 years he’s lived there. ‘We have people here who have lost everything,’

More coverage on the CNN website went on to state;

“Some areas, like the town of Red Boiling Springs, were pounded with as much as eight inches of rain in a 12-hour stretch Wednesday.”

On Wednesday I was caught driving through this deluge from Pegram to Bellevue, TN, along the Harpeth River on Highway 70, an area that received significant flooding and damage during the flood of May 1. From my car window I could see that the river was at least 6 to 8 feet higher than its normal level.

On a Thursday morning local news broadcast a reporter commented that if it had rained again today, downtown Nashville was in danger of flooding again. Damage assessments across the state have yet to be tallied.

The US media as a whole has yet to begin linking extreme weather events to man-made climate change, but earlier this week the New York Times might have made history with their front page story: In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming. Let’s hope that this is the beginning of some much needed mainstream media coverage on the imminent danger that now confronts us.

Link:  http://normandpost.com/?p=208.