Nashville Area Flooding

[Mike Hendren]

12th green at Vanderbilt Legends Club:


16th green at VLC:


Clubhouse at Opryland's course (only the largest of Jeff Brauer's containment mounding is dry):


The NLE Country Club of Franklin FKA Carnton Country Club which was reclaimed as part of the Battle of Franklin battlefield:


LP Field:





Symphony Center (I work in the glass tower behind it - water fills all four levels of sub-surface parking):


Note to architects:  do not put the back-up generator in the bottom of the parking garage.

Country Music Hall of Fame:


Mill Creek strikes again;

[Michael Dugger]

I've been wondering when someone would put up images from all this.

I saw Atlanta got hit pretty hard too...

[Zack Molnar]

Mike,
Has this affected both courses, or just the members 18?

[PCCraig]

Wow...unreal! 

[Bart Bradley]

Thoughts, good wishes, and prayers to all affected.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Thanks for the pictures. 

The Opryland Clubhouse was built with the first floor just above 100 year flood, but the basement with the carts is well below 100 year floodplain.  The mounding around it was supposed to keep the floodwaters out of the area and water that fell in the hole was to be pumped out.  I can't tell if the water is just over the first floor, or right at it, but it got on that level, that means this was greater than a 100 year storm, unless there were some later mods, which may have happened, because that smaller structure wasn't there originally and they may have breached the "dam" in regrading.

I guess my biggest mounds will be renamed "noah's ark" mounds.  I was planning on giving them a call when I thought they might have gotten back to work, but it looks like that will be a week at least.....

[Mike Hendren]

Zach, from what I'm told the only significant damage is on the South course.

Jeff, absent a federal disaster declaration this flood will be catastrophic as much of the damage is well outside the 100 years flood plain in places where homeowners and businesses never thought of obtaining flood insurance and weren't required by lenders to do so. 

FEMA will be re-drawing its maps in the near future.

Mike

[Tim Bert]

16th fairway at Forrest Crossing GC

[Bill_McBride]

Wow, it's hard to believe there could be enough rain to exceed the 100 year storm. 
As we've learned the hard way on the Gulf Coast, it is a tragedy to have a homeowner's standard policy when there's a highly unusual flood.   This looks just awful.

[George Freeman]

This is by no means poking fun at what is happening down in TN (my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected), but that is kind of a cool looking hazard...

16th green at VLC:

[Tim Bert]

For those of you interested in the stats, the area got between 12 and 18 inches of rain in about 36 hours. To put this in perspective, consider the following:

1. The previous record monthly rainfall for Nashville in May is about 12 inches so we broke a monthly record in 2 days

2. In the 100+ years they ve been tracking in middle TN the most rain ever recorded in 2 days was 6.5". So, we more than doubled that record which is almost statistically impossible from an outlier standpoint when you consider the volume of the data collected.

[Matthew Petersen]

For those of you interested in the stats, the area got between 12 and 18 inches of rain in about 36 hours. To put this in perspective, consider the following:

1. The previous record monthly rainfall for Nashville in May is about 12 inches so we broke a monthly record in 2 days

2. In the 100+ years they ve been tracking in middle TN the most rain ever recorded in 2 days was 6.5". So, we more than doubled that record which is almost statistically impossible from an outlier standpoint when you consider the volume of the data collected.

Another way to put it in perspective, as they said on the news here, is that Phoenix averages about 8 inches of rainfall annually. So this storm dropped twice as much rain as I see in a year in not quite two days.

[Eric Smith]

Those pictures and the video of the Opryland Hotel are most distressing.  My friends and family in Nashville are in my thoughts and prayers.

I was supposed to play Sunday at The Golf Club of Tennessee just west of Nashville, but a text on Saturday from my buddy who is a member there explained that the course had closed due to flooding.  He included this pic of the 10th hole.

This was 10AM on Saturday.  Where I live, about an hour and a half east of Nashville, the heaviest rains came after this, lasting on in to early Monday morning, compounding an already dire situation.

My wife took a shuttle to the Nashville airport at 4:30AM on Monday, the rains having subsided by the time she got on the interstate. Curiously, she didn't see any of the flooding, being east of the city, and her flight left on schedule.  

[Billsteele]

Mike-My thoughts and prayers go out to the folks affected by the flooding. I hope you and your family are well. I think Nashville is one of the neatest cities in the USA but it looks like it will take a long time to recover from this situation. Mother Nature is sometimes a cruel and unpredictable woman.

[Jim Franklin]

I have a conference at Opryland June 6-8. I wonder if they will still be able to hold it. Plus I am flying to Nashville Saturday. I hope Hertz didn't lose any cars.

[CJ Carder]

I have a conference at Opryland June 6-8. I wonder if they will still be able to hold it. Plus I am flying to Nashville Saturday. I hope Hertz didn't lose any cars.

Jim,

After seeing the videos of the Opryland hotel, they're not going to be open for another 4-6 months, so I doubt you're going to have your conference.  My cousin, who lives in Nashville, told me that the mall next door to Opryland was completely under water with the only thing visible from the outside being the top of the Bass Pro Shops sign.

CJ

[Jim Franklin]

I have a conference at Opryland June 6-8. I wonder if they will still be able to hold it. Plus I am flying to Nashville Saturday. I hope Hertz didn't lose any cars.

Jim,

After seeing the videos of the Opryland hotel, they're not going to be open for another 4-6 months, so I doubt you're going to have your conference.  My cousin, who lives in Nashville, told me that the mall next door to Opryland was completely under water with the only thing visible from the outside being the top of the Bass Pro Shops sign.

CJ

Thanks.

[Tim Bert]

Not intending to spread unfounded rumor but someone told me they saw atelier on TV that the Opryland resort's focus was to try to be ready for business in time for their massive Christmas event (amazing decorations and some programs).  If true this would imply re-opening is many months away as was previously stated here. 

[Jeff_Brauer]

Mike,

May I ask where you got those pics?  I would like to see if there are more of Springhouse.....

The photos brought back more memories. One, Larry Nelson proposed the second green be sort of perched out over the bank on the Cumberland to get it really close to the water. It certainly would be gone by now.  And of course, we had to balance the cut and fill to attain "compensatory storage" to in theory prevent worse flooding....Our first runs of cut and fills did not do this and the regulators made us redo them. For fun, the engineers ran the plan through their flood modeling program and determined that if we had filled the entire 200 acre site 10 feet, it would have raised flood levels 0.1 feet downstream.  I understand why they don't make exceptions, but a flood like this shows why engineers over design everything, as well as the really theoretical nature of such things.

I gather that if they have now kept records for 100 years, 8 inches of rain in 24 hours is the new 100 year storm for Nashville.  The funny thing is, for most areas, the big storms like that are associated with hurricanes and the like.  That really was an unusual storm.


While there can be no bright side to such large flooding, in looking at the photos of the 12th green at Vanderbilt Legends Club, I think we have discovered a new bunker edging technique - flood cutting!

[Jeff_Brauer]

Tim,

Yes, the Opryland Country Christmas is quite the event.

[Mike Hendren]

Jeff, the second is one of my favorite holes there - really cool the way the fairway drops and breaks up after the drive- a good example of creative shaping. 

The hotel's conservatories suffered several feet of water and the water actually reached the stage of the Opryhouse.  Check out www.tennessean.com for more photographs.  Definitely the new 100 year storm.





Mike

[Tom Fussell]

Mike,

May I ask where you got those pics?  I would like to see if there are more of Springhouse.....

The photos brought back more memories. One, Larry Nelson proposed the second green be sort of perched out over the bank on the Cumberland to get it really close to the water. It certainly would be gone by now.  And of course, we had to balance the cut and fill to attain "compensatory storage" to in theory prevent worse flooding....Our first runs of cut and fills did not do this and the regulators made us redo them. For fun, the engineers ran the plan through their flood modeling program and determined that if we had filled the entire 200 acre site 10 feet, it would have raised flood levels 0.1 feet downstream.  I understand why they don't make exceptions, but a flood like this shows why engineers over design everything, as well as the really theoretical nature of such things.

I gather that if they have now kept records for 100 years, 8 inches of rain in 24 hours is the new 100 year storm for Nashville.  The funny thing is, for most areas, the big storms like that are associated with hurricanes and the like.  That really was an unusual storm.


While there can be no bright side to such large flooding, in looking at the photos of the 12th green at Vanderbilt Legends Club, I think we have discovered a new bunker edging technique - flood cutting!

I found more photos and an update of other courses around Middle Tennessee at:

http://golfhousetennessee.com/fw/main/default.asp

Tom

[Nick Pozaric]

I heard that Olde Stone in Bowling Green suffered major damage also from the storms.  I dont know the extent of the damages but was told the front 9 which is partially built on a flood plain will be closed for about 6 months

[John Mayhugh]

I heard that Olde Stone in Bowling Green suffered major damage also from the storms.  I dont know the extent of the damages but was told the front 9 which is partially built on a flood plain will be closed for about 6 months

Holes 2-7 are built on a flood plain and there was some damage. I haven't been down there or seen any pics of the damage.

The club is telling the members that the front 9 will be closed for about two months.

[Mike_Young]

I have seen some photos of Jerry Lemons,( a contributor and architect on this site) standin gin his doorway and it looked as though his house and golf course were both flooded...all should wish him well....