Three years ago, Tennessee set a new record for the heaviest rainfall in a single day — a downpour that also broke the record for a daily rainfall in a non-coastal U.S. state.
More than 20 inches of rain fell in McEwen, before washing down through Waverly and killing 20 people. These floodwaters pulled people from inside of their homes, whisked away cars and split concrete infrastructure.
The event was catastrophic. But it was localized to a tiny, rural area.
If the rainfall dropped in a dense city like Nashville, which is largely smothered in concrete, the level of catastrophe would have been far different — potentially affecting upwards of a million people, instead of thousands. (For reference, the May 2010 flood in Nashville peaked at nine inches of rain in 24 hours.)
Experts say understanding what is possible during these kinds of events is critical to prepare for flooding across the state in the new climate reality.
But, three years on, weather preparedness advocates and even state agencies have struggled to get support from Gov. Bill Lee or the state legislature with some key preparedness measures.
This year, for example, the Tennessee Department of Military requested funding for a mesonet, a statewide weather network, and a flood predictor tool. Both systems are considered essential to compile the data needed to understand flood risks, and both had initial funding needs of just a few million dollars, according to Protect Tennessee, formerly Flood Ready Tennessee. The governor declined to include them in this year’s $52 billion budget.
This was not the first effort to get state funding for a mesonet. State legislators tried to pass a bill in 2023.
The state did, however, pass a law this year to create a revolving loan fund to provide counties and local governments with money for “resilience and hazard mitigation projects.”
