CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – When Thomas and Kristen Wynne retired out of Fort Campbell, they looked forward to spending their golden years in a cozy home in a quaint neighborhood in north Clarksville. Neither could have anticipated the financial drain that their home would become.
As the wall of storms moved through Clarksville last week, the Woodstock subdivision was battered with downpours. Just like in February, floodwaters consumed the small development, forcing residents like the Wynnes to evacuate. Many of those evacuated residents still had yet to recover from the last flood.
“People don’t have the money to keep repairing,” Kristen told Clarksville Now as she bobbed in 5 feet of water on Wednesday, wading down what had once been her street. “You’re talking $100,000 to $130,000 (in flood repairs) in 50 days. People finance houses and pay that over 20 years.”
Vulnerable after February flood
Thomas, 55, retired after 28 years in the military; Kristen, 46, retired after 22 years in. Their home in the quiet neighborhood of Woodstock was a welcome sight as the two began to pursue civilian careers. But things changed on Feb. 15-16, when Clarksville was hit with storms that produced 6.28 inches of rainfall. The Wynne home was surrounded by a small lake that seeped inside.
The damage from the February storm was extensive: Floodwaters destroyed the flooring in their sunroom, their HVAC system, and their inground pool. It was a heavy blow to their wallet, too, as the couple dug into their retirement funds to shell out money for a new HVAC system as well as new flooring.
“We recovered in February by ourselves,” Kristin said. “We used our TSPs (Thrift Savings Plan) and 401Ks, and that was $50,000 before the pool. We hadn’t even started on the pool.”
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Escaping the April flood
Still recovering from what happened in February, they worried last week as the storm approached Clarksville. At about 10 p.m. Saturday, the Wynnes were sitting in their home watching a game on TV. All day, they had been keeping an eye on the weather, and as night fell, Thomas checked outside to assess the neighborhood’s condition.
“We’d been watching all day, and were thinking, ‘Oh, we might be good, we might be good,'” Kristen recalled. But when Thomas checked again, he noticed that water had begun to rise around a dumpster near their home.
When Kristen saw water seeping up through the floor vents in her bedroom, the couple knew they needed to evacuate. The water had risen 6 inches over the top of their crawlspace. They grabbed their go bag, tried to protect some of their belongings, and they fled.
In the 15-20 minutes it took to get out of their house, the water had risen from the dumpster to half the height of Thomas’ tires as he drove away. At around 1 a.m. Sunday, their home surveillance cameras captured firefighters knocking on their door for an evacuation, barely two hours after the Wynnes fled.
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Retirement fund depleted
On Wednesday, Thomas and Kristen returned to their submerged home to retrieve some of their belongings. They donned their waders, carried an inflatable raft into the murky floodwaters and floated toward their house.
While Thomas swam down the street to go retrieve their garbage can, Kristen invited Clarksville Now in for a tour of her home. She stopped by the air handler filter and pulled it open to shine a light inside, revealing an air duct full of stagnant, murky water in their recently replaced HVAC system.
“You work so hard,” Kristen said, her voice full of emotion. “I mean, I came from nothing. I had my daughter when I was 14, married at 15, joined the Army because everyone said I couldn’t do it. I mean, we thought we were doing good.”
She took a ragged breath as she led Clarksville Now to her sunroom, showing the lake that was now her backyard. “And then, Hey! 50-something-thousand-dollars worth of damage? What? We covered it by pulling from our 401K and TSP,” Kristen’s voice shook as tears filled her eyes. “There ain’t any money left.”
Kristen and Thomas are still looking on the bright side: to each other. As they loaded up the raft and made their way back to shore, the two reminisced on their years together. After marrying in 2003, their love has survived multiple deployments, long distances, and now two floods.
“We’ve been married 21 years,” Kristen said, smiling at her husband. “He’s my best friend. I wouldn’t have it any other way … and he’s cute in waders!”
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