CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – As Montgomery County continues recovering from last week’s storms, the Farmington subdivision off Exit 8 isn’t just dealing with flooding, but also with the opening of a massive sinkhole in their backyards and raw sewage running across their properties and backing up into their homes.
Montgomery County Highway Department officials said Thursday that they worked for days to move stormwater across multiple basins to protect as many homes as possible, but they were overwhelmed by a rush of water equivalent to an Olympic-sized swimming pool every two to three minutes.
Jeffrey Ryals, who lives on Juniper Pass, told Clarksville Now that sometime on Friday morning, while he was on a camping trip, their security cameras went off due to workers in the area.
“We called our neighbor across the street, and he asked them what was going on,” Ryals said. “They said they were going to start displacing some of the water from Dunlop (Lane) to try and help alleviate some of the pain over there. They said they were going to start pumping into this retention area over here, and our neighbor then asked what’s the risk in that. He was told it’s not going to be a problem because they’re just displacing the water, moving it to other areas.”
‘You guys didn’t tell me it was that big of a risk’
Upon hearing this news, the Ryals family packed up their belongings from their camping trip and returned home. He said the Montgomery County Highway Department workers confirmed what his neighbor had told him, and he learned they were also displacing water into a drain that flowed to another section of the subdivision.
Ryals said the area behind his house on Juniper Pass had hardly ever held water in the years since he moved into his home. That is until this year when Farmington experienced flooding in February and now again in April. Farmington is outside the Clarksville city limits in Montgomery County.
He said that on Saturday morning upon waking up, he and his family could tell the water was creeping up closer toward their backyard fence. A second pumping truck was brought in later that day, and Ryals was told that whatever it was they were doing was working.
As water continued to climb toward their home, Ryals asked again if he and his family were at risk and if they need to get some sandbags. He said he was assured they didn’t need to, but if they wanted to play it safe, they could wait until the water reached the middle of the backyard, then if it got that high, sandbags might be needed.
“At 7 p.m. I said, ‘Look, it’s probably in the middle of our backyard; do we need to be alarmed? Are we getting sandbags?’ He said, ‘No, I think you’ll be all right,'” Ryals said.
At about midnight the water reached the steps of their backyard, and then two hours later the Ryals family was notified that they needed to go to Kirkwood High School to get their own sandbags. “I’m usually a patient guy, but I went off on them,” Ryals said. “I told them we had talked about this at 4 o’clock; you guys didn’t tell me it was that big of a risk. … We asked what’s the protocol, and they said they didn’t know.”
Ryals said that afterward, the crews and family members drove together to bag sand for about one to two hours. When they got home, other neighbors began to come out of their houses and were given sandbags.
They placed sandbags around their HVAC unit, but by the time the Ryals family had started on their garage, the HVAC unit had already been overtaken by stormwater. They then moved the sandbags surrounding their HVAC and placed them around the garage, inside the garage and around the front of the porch and back door. The Ryals family eventually made their way inside to save as many belongings as possible.
“Had I known this was going to be an issue, we would have started doing that earlier,” Ryals said. “We would have friends come over, and we would have started lifting everything up. This is not a flood zone; we don’t have flood insurance, we didn’t need it.”
Ultimately, the sandbags didn’t matter. On Sunday, the floodwater rose well above the sandbags at the garage, and it was still knee-deep on Wednesday. Inside the house, the water rose above about 4 feet – above their couches, higher than the kitchen countertops, and flowed over the keys on their piano.
While their home remains full of water, the Ryals family is staying in a hotel as they figure out how to move forward.
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Veronica Court
Meanwhile, a street over on Veronica Court, several homes were ruined by stormwater and sewage. On Thursday, sewage continued to spill across at least four houses in the area, including that of Robert Zenk, who lives at the end of the court.
Zenk told Clarksville Now his house sits in front of a 100-year-floodplain, and it’s the lowest drainage point in Farmington.
“For us, we felt comfortable living here without flood insurance, because we were told no one can build on this drainage area,” Zenk said. “They developed (Farmington subdivision) Phase 3 up above our side of the neighborhood, and the drainage from that has always flooded our back yard when it rains. The 100-year floodplain floods every time it rains.”
He said recent storms filled the basins nearby along Dunlop Lane, and that left water stagnant and standing for days on end. “Before the most recent storm, workers pumped from that side of the neighborhood to this lowest spot,” he said. “So, this filled before the rain came. When the rain did come, everything backed up and drained this way with nowhere for the water to go here on Veronica (Court).”
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Zenk said he and his family evacuated on Sunday, but before their property flooded out front, the sewer backed up from the additional stormwater. “Because the storm pushed the sewer back, the sewer has been flowing for days in front of our house. Which is unfortunate because the storm runoff pushed it from in front of our house into the house, filling the crawlspace, the backyard, the shed and the garage,” he said. “Thankfully the water didn’t go higher than our living space, but the damage has been done.”
As of Thursday, the sewage was still flowing out of the backed-up pipes.
Zenk’s neighbor, Concetta Young, told Clarksville Now the situation with the sewage in front of their homes has worsened in the last two days after crews opened up the sewage line in her driveway.
Young said she called the Sewage Department with Clarksville Gas & Water Wednesday morning because sewage had started to come out from underneath her dishwasher. With the sewer station still underwater, the sewer line was opened in Young’s driveway to stop her house from being backed up.
“So, they opened it this (Wednesday) morning at 8 a.m. and as soon as it opened, all the waste of the Farmington neighborhood has been coming out nonstop,” Young said. “The smell is horrible; my garage smells like poop. Nobody is taking accountability; nobody is taking responsibility. People are already putting in claims, and the claims are already being denied. It’s very sad.”
Zenk did point out the situation at Veronica Court could have been worse if a sinkhole hadn’t formed behind a home at Forsythia and Remington Trace, draining a large portion of the stormwater.
Zenk said he would like to have seen better communication from local officials but understands there are others who need help just as much. For now, he and his family of five, along with their two dogs, are living out of a friend’s house until they can figure out how to move forward.
‘It was so loud that it sounded like we were standing next to a waterfall’
While Veronica Court deals with continued flooding and raw sewage, Farmington resident Roy Nelson and his family are dealing with the opening of a sinkhole in their backyard.
On Sunday night, Nelson, who’s house is at the intersection of Forsythia and Remington Trace, was walking around the neighborhood with his wife to inspect the water levels. As they were walking, he said they could hear and see the water flowing toward their house.
“We walked back around and maybe about an hour and a half later, somewhere around 11 p.m. to midnight, I just heard what sounded like a waterfall,” Nelson told Clarksville Now. “When I looked again, I could see trees and the grass by my housing moving, so I went and walked out on my deck. It was so loud that it sounded like we were standing next to a waterfall.”
The next morning, Nelson said his wife woke him up and told him to go look at the land behind their backyard. That’s when he saw a massive sinkhole.
“It’s on the HOA’s property, but it goes up into my property, and it’s about 10-20 feet under and around our fence. … It’s so close to our home; the actual size of the home and the weight of the home, we’re just so unsure about what’s going on underneath.”
Nelson said in the days since it’s been a nerve-wracking experience, but they are continuing to meet with local officials and government agencies to decide how to move forward. He said he’s not sure where they go from here, but he offered advice to the rest of the Montgomery County community.
“One of the first things we were asked was, ‘Do you have sink hole insurance?’ I would just advise the residents in Clarksville as a whole, make sure you have flood insurance, make sure you have sinkhole insurance,” he said. “These are things we don’t normally think about every day. Check with your insurance company, do research, research the area you live in. Find out the history of flooding; find out the history of sinkholes; find out the history about your neighborhood and make sure you protect yourself and your family.”
Nelson said he thanks Jesus Christ for protecting him and his family.
What’s next
The Highway Department said Thursday that crews have deployed a series of high-capacity pumps—brought in from outside the local area—to remove excess water and increase stormwater capacity in the affected basins.
“We are hopeful these efforts will help lower water levels and allow residents to return to their homes as soon as possible,” said a representative from the department. “We will continue to provide updates as roads reopen and conditions improve.”
On Wednesday morning, when offering an update on the flood damage during an Industrial Development Board meeting, Montgomery County Property Assessor Erinne Hester said she’s seen four or five floods in her time in office, compiling reports for property valuation.
She spoke with passion about the homes damaged, at both Farmington, which is in the county, and Woodstock, in the city. Hester called the damage reports “devastating” and maddening. She said that while “no conditions are ever the same,” this is not solely an overdevelopment problem. “That’s not what it is,” she said.
“I don’t know what the remedy is, but something has to get done. And it’s on local government to do it,” Hester said. “We should all use our influence to make sure this doesn’t get forgotten in a month or two when it dries up. Because these people are hurting.”
Wesley Irvin and Chris Smith contributed to this report.
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