Repairs still underway three years after deadly Waverly flooding

WAVERLY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Parts of one small Middle Tennessee city are still recovering three years after a flood killed 19 people in Waverly.

On August 21, 2021, deadly floodwaters rushed through tight-knit neighborhoods with little warning. It was a day that many locals remember vividly. Three years later, some are still trying to recover.

“You don’t think about a tsunami happening inland,” Waverly Church of Christ elder David Nowlan explained. “But that’s what it was.”

Nineteen people died in Waverly that day. A 20th person died within Humphreys County.

“[The] unaccounted list started at better than 200 names, and then over the course of the next two or three days, we were able to get it worked down,” Waverly mayor W.B. “Buddy” Frazier, said.

Between nine and 17 inches of rain fell throughout Middle Tennessee within a six-hour period on the morning of August 21.

“This creek ran through the entire length of our city, so it impacted everyone,” Frazier said.

Houses were swept off of their foundations. The local school was destroyed. Cars were pulled by the current into homes. People — desperate to survive — clung to roofs and window panes, with helicopters and boats pulling people to safety.

“Knowing that you had to stay the course to get people what they needed, to get people things, and to get them to safety and to get them back reunited or joined back with their families,” Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said.

Nowlan told News 2 they started serving affected residents that day.

“I thought we have to do it,” Nowlan said. “Whatever we can do, whatever we’re blessed to do, we got to do.”

The church hasn’t stopped. Initially, 876 people needed home repairs. Nowlan said that number has since been reduced to just three. He told News 2 that organizations like Good360 , High Socks for Hope , and the Church of Christ Disaster Relief Effort enabled them to help so many.

For some people like Greg Brantley, some things were not able to be repaired.

“A lot of people’s lives, up until this point probably, are probably still in there under a bunch of dirt,” Brantley said while looking at the remains of his apartment complex.

Mayor Frazier told News 2 that it could be another 10 years before the city fully recovers.

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