What this article does not tell you is that the Corp of Engineers had been trying since 1970 to get the levee around the property raised. The Corp believed that the 100 yr level was not sufficient. The Corp could not legally require the levee to be increased, but had “strongly encouraged” that it be done, yet the property owners refused. This link to a 2010 newspaper article provides details: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100801/NEWS01/8010357/Army-Corps-Engineers-warned-Opryland-levee-too-low
I also forgot to add that two dams, the Wolf Creek and Center Hill dams, upstream on rivers that flow into the Cumberland have been receiving repairs and could not hold the water level to which they had been designed, so more water had to be released from these dams. Water was about to come over the top of Old Hickory dam and water had to be released. The bottom line is that we had never seen that much rain in such a short period of time.
Blaming the weatherperson. That’s a new one.
What this article does not tell you is that the Corp of Engineers had been trying since 1970 to get the levee around the property raised. The Corp believed that the 100 yr level was not sufficient. The Corp could not legally require the levee to be increased, but had “strongly encouraged” that it be done, yet the property owners refused. This link to a 2010 newspaper article provides details:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100801/NEWS01/8010357/Army-Corps-Engineers-warned-Opryland-levee-too-low
I also forgot to add that two dams, the Wolf Creek and Center Hill dams, upstream on rivers that flow into the Cumberland have been receiving repairs and could not hold the water level to which they had been designed, so more water had to be released from these dams. Water was about to come over the top of Old Hickory dam and water had to be released. The bottom line is that we had never seen that much rain in such a short period of time.