Reporting from Lake Bellevue

Note: This post contains video. You might need to watch it on the site.

We’re reporting today from our beachfront property here on Lake Bellevue. Almost two years after our last flood scare, we’re back in the drink.

Last night saw continuous thunderstorms rampaging over a belt from northern Alabama through central Tennessee. Somewhere between 5.75″ and 7.25″ of rain fell and the Harpeth River went up up up.

Our previous storm in 2019 crested at a mere 17.75 feet. At daybreak we were looking at 22 feet with a peak of 27.4 projected (!!!).

The prospect of five more feet of water felt like we would be conducting a home defense. Monkey and I used a Monkey for scale and agreed that this was !!!!  We have proper flood-kit barriers, a giant tarp (could it be cut up and nailed to the garage doors?), not much to lose in the garage and a waterproof floor in the basement.

By early afternoon, even though the water had crept up a foot, it was clear that we aren’t going to see the higher crests.

We took the car out for a drive to see what we could learn. Is the water the same height on both sides of the road? No, not always. Do drowned schoolbuses up at Ensworth School look like big crocodiles? Yes, quite a bit. Do we want to live on lakefront property? No, not so much.