Tennessee River Flood 2009

Today, the sun finally come out and we've gotten a break from the daily rains we've been receiving for the past week although more rain is forecast for the next few days. I decided to take a look around and see how high the water has risen. All of these pictures of the Tennessee River were taken locally, just around the corner from my home near Perryville, Tennessee. Since the Tennessee River is managed by a system of dams, water levels at the Perryville gauging station is usually maintained to around 359 feet above sea level during summer pool. The last time I checked we were at 367 feet above sea level and expected to rise in the next day to 368 feet. Flood stage is 370 feet, so everyone is crossing their fingers that we won't get much more rain. The next dam further downriver is releasing water to lower the river level, but this needs to be done slowly as to not inundate the lands on the other side. The party cabana above sits on a low lying area, most likely it'll start floating downstream. There's a ton of debris both natural and man made that is currently loose on the river, creating a hazard for navigation.


This gangway leads to one of the floating houses I wrote about in my post dated April 7. The house itself has risen with the river's level as it was constructed to do but now it takes a boat to get to it.

Another of the floating houses.
The houses on this side of the floating house colony appear to be suffering some damage.

Under normal conditions, there is some water between the bank at the bottom left corner and the house. Since the river has risen 8 feet the gangways are underwater with the only access being by boat.

The cluster of trees in the center are found on a little island, now underwater.

There's usually a walking path in this area.

And normally, water does not cover the road.

The planks in the center of the photo are actually picnic tables.

Appears to be a strange place for a bridge.

Before the river started rising, there was a camper under this roof over. They have left their front deck and barbque grill behind for now and have moved the camper to higher ground.

The sign on the right marks the entrance to Perryville Marina. Under normal conditions, the water's level would be 8 feet lower.

It might not be a bad idea to move these campers out now. The ground is pretty saturated already and if the river rises higher they might have trouble getting these out. Most of these are summer/weekend getaway places.

This is usually a parking area with the river normally being on the other side of the stand of trees.