‘All we want is a safer community’: Waverly leaders work with federal agencies to mitigate future flood risks

WAVERLY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Several projects are in the works that could prevent another tragedy in Humphreys County.

Three years ago, Trace Creek flooded the city of Waverly. As a result, 20 people died in the county, and about 800 properties were destroyed.

“It can go very quickly from being a very mild stream to a violent, raging river,” Waverly mayor, W.B. “Buddy” Frazier, explained. “We’ve seen that time and time again.”

Decades of previous city leadership have worked to mitigate the flood risk, but solutions may finally be within reach.

“Our existing flood maps have not been updated since 1981,” Frazier said. “We did meet with representatives from FEMA yesterday and they are revising the flood maps.”

Once those flood maps are revised, several projects to elevate flood risk reduction that were waiting for funding, approval — or both — could be one step closer to starting.

“All we want is a safer community,” Frazier said. “We want people to be able to go to bed at night and not have to worry about being washed out of their homes or having property damaged.”

Frazier told News 2 that the removal of an established dam in the creek is one project for which they have the funding, but are waiting for approval. He added that permission for that project is needed from the West Tennessee River Basin Authority.

Once the dam is removed, debris held back by the dam would be redirected to a system flowing beneath the creek.

“That’s just one of the pieces of the puzzle that will help us be more flood resistant,” Frazier said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Natural Resource Conservation Service is also creating a study in Waverly to develop alternative solutions to reposition the floodplain. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Green, commander of Nashville’s district for the Army Corps of Engineers, said that several options could open up.

“Whether those be rerouting canals, building some kind of retention structures, [or] building some kind of dams,” Green said. “We will conceptually create all these, and we will help provide the technical information of what type of benefits those different structures would provide.”

Green added that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers looks at internal models and previous flood mitigation options from other cities and engage with the public to craft a plan. The study is anticipated to be completed by fall 2024.

“We understand the trauma that this community has been in, and we want to work with them to get their input into getting to a solution that is enduring,” Green said.

Frazier said the next step after the study would be to collect federal funding for those projects and potentially prevent development in some areas of Waverly.

“We may have some areas that it may make more economic sense to buy those areas out and have no more development in those areas as opposed to trying to protect them,” Frazier said.

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