Posted: February 26th, 2023

HLSC 720-DISCUSSION 5-REPLY 2

The thread must be a minimum of 500-750 words. MINIMUM OF TWO SOURCES BESIDES THE TEXTBOOK. Must cite at least 2 sources in addition to the Bible.

TEXTBOOK: Bennett, B. T. (2018). Understanding, assessing, and responding to terrorism: Protecting critical infrastructure and personnel (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 9781119237785.

***RICHARD***

Middle Tennessee Flood 2010

      In spring in Tennessee, there are many festivals that are being planned including the CMT Music fest and Bonnaroo. Those plans changed when a storm that would stay in the area from April 29, 2010, until May 3, 2010, causing water levels to rise (Grigsby, 2016) The flooding that accompanied it was also a shock to the city of Nashville, and ultimately the entire area.  The Cumberland River crested and overpowered the levee systems (Mariscal et al., 2011) The water was over 50 feet in parts of Nashville. On May 4, 2010, in Clarksville, just to the west the same river overflowed and caused havoc and destruction in that city (Settle, 2015)

     The city was not alone in efforts to stop the flooding, the US Army Corps of Engineers were working tirelessly to stop levees from overtopping. They had crews monitoring all of the dams in the area. The J. Perry Priest Dam just up the river from Nashville was one of them and they were able to keep the water at bay there. The Cheatham Lock and Dam was one that did get defeated and where most of the flooding ran into areas that had not been planned for. The Corps was making decisions nearly by the minute to keep the population and critical infrastructure safe  (May 2010 Flood Event, 2010) The efforts were worth it as they did prevent a larger disaster. They were not able to keep the water out of all neighborhoods though.  While many would point blame at them, they were up against an unforeseen amount of rainfall in a short period of time.

     The damage sustained through middle Tennessee was daunting.  There were well over 11 thousand structures that were damaged or destroyed. In Davidson County, there were 26 deaths with 11 being in the city of Nashville.  It was not until five months later the last victim was found (Grigsby, 2015) The cost of the flood would rise to approximately 2 billion dollars for damages to private property and, a staggering 120 million dollars worth of damage to the infrastructure of the greater metro area.

Preparation

 The plan to respond to a flood in the area was solid. The risk assessment was not fully conducted for a large-magnitude flood.  It was not comprehensive in that manner (Bennett, 2018). The response was slowed by the amount of water in multiple areas. With two of the state’s top five biggest cities battling floods, getting resources to both should have been in the plans. Understanding the flood pain and how it factored into many neighborhoods being washed away would have prevented some of the loss (Haer et al., 2017). The state now requires a flood-survey for new homes being built. If the city would have learned from the events five years prior in Louisiana, the plan would have been stronger. The information collected from Hurricane Katrina was also shared.  If utilized properly the weak areas of the city would have been targeted for protection as part of mitigating the risk (Bennett, 2018). The response and ultimately the recovery is a lesson for others to use in planning for events such as this one.

Worldview

 With a strong plan even, the biggest storm cannot defeat us completely. We shall be prepared and ready when the time comes to test our capabilities (King James Version, 2020, Matthew 6:25-34)

Rich LaMonica          

References:

Bennett. (2018). Understanding, assessing and responding to terrorism protecting critical infrastructure and personnel (Bennett, Ed.; Second edition.). John Wiley & Sons.

Grigsby, K. (2016, May 03). 20 things to know about the 2010 Nashville flood. Retrieved February 05, 2018, from

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2015/04/30/nashville-flood-20-things-to-know/26653901/Links to an external site.

Haer, T., Botzen, W. J. W., Moel, H., & Aerts, Jeroen C. J. H. (2017). Integrating household risk mitigation behavior in flood risk analysis: An Agent‐Based model approach. Risk Analysis, 37(10), 1977-1992. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12740

King James Bible Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/. originally published 1611

Mariscal, H. J., Halford, S. D., Shannon, C., & Penney, K. (2011, July 6). SEVERE FLOODING MAY 2010 Disaster Declaration #FEMA-1909-DR After Action Report/Improvement Plan[PDF]. Nashville: Metropolitan Government of Nashville, Davidson County.

May 2010 Flood Event Cumberland River Basin[PDF]. (2010, July 21). Great Lakes and Ohio River: Corps of Engineers.

Settle, J. (2015, May 02). Remembering the Great Flood. Retrieved February 05, 2018, from

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/story/news/local/clarksville/2015/05/01/remembering-great-flood/26741999/Links to an external site.