USN remembers historic flood
A decade ago tons of water swept through the patch of land sandwiched between a Whites Creek and the Cumberland River, leaving University School of Nashville athletics fields not yet in their adolescence strewn with debris. As painful as the 2010 flood was for Middle Tennessee, lessons learned while wading the waters prepared USN for a stormy spring to come 10 years later.
When River Campus Director Bret Mash left the River Campus on the last day of April 2010, he didn’t expect more than another spring rain. Initial forecasts called for 2 to 4 inches of rain, he recalled. Two days later, after clouds poured incessantly, Mash drove to the River Campus around 7 a.m. and stopped at the gate, unable to drive his four-wheel-drive pickup into the River Campus driveway. Two days later, he returned to the River Campus by kayak to paddle around the tops of trees. Large pools of water remained for another three days.
The sight was similar across Middle Tennessee following torrential rain — as much as 19 inches in some places — on the first two days of May 2010 which swelled creeks and rivers turning basements into wading pools, flooding neighborhoods, and leaving many without power.
The Edgehill Campus suffered little more than several roof leaks but no major water intrusion.
Although the 80-acre River Campus — home to athletic fields, an eight-lane track, eight tennis courts, and a wetland site for science research — was built on a known flood plain, no one at University School of Nashville expected the tide a 1,000-year flood could bring.
“Like a cereal bowl, it filled up, and after it emptied. There were lots of water creatures left there,” said Director Vince Durnan, who recalls standing on a Briley Parkway bridge over the Cumberland River the days the sky dried and left Nashville soaked. Just a week before the campus was picturesque with fields freshly striped, and a helicopter flew over to capture aerial photos.
As the water receded, they found fish stuck in chainlink fences, water moccasins, raccoons, and possums left behind in fields, and even deer who drowned. The high jump pit, trash cans, and picnic tables were left high up in trees. Construction trash rested on the baseball field.
“The biggest challenge was that everything that wasn’t bolted down went to the wetlands,” Mash said. Some athletics equipment and the electrical systems were total losses. He cashed in favors with rental companies, brought his personal tractor from home, and worked with the lone other River Campus staff member to bring River Campus back online within two months.
The flood displaced seven USN faculty, some of whom were able to find temporary homes in the houses of USN families. Many hands mobilized to help in the hardest-hit areas, and the USN community generously raised $70,000 to assist affected faculty.
Who would have predicted that just two months shy of the flood’s 10th anniversary, the River Campus would again face a natural disaster? When an EF-3 tornado swept through Nashville in the early hours of March 3, 2020, concrete rained onto 15 acres of River Campus and left fields strewn with debris. Two sets of bleachers and four soccer goals were damaged. This time, though, Mash was at the River Campus before the sun and had dumpsters on their way so that he and his crew of four could immediately get to work. They filled nine dumpsters and had them hauled away for the fields to reopen within a week.
Again, USN faculty and families lost their homes or faced significant damage. And again, students mobilized drives and members of the USN community lent their hands to not only each other but also Nashville.
As the global COVID-19 pandemic and Nashville’s Safer at Home Order have made it difficult for the school to mobilize group efforts, Durnan said he’s felt “strong community spirit.”
“We accord Mother Nature all this respect, but look at us,” Mash said. “In 40 days, you’d never known [the flood] happened. So with the tornado, we said, ‘We’ll just put it back.’ There is value in perseverance. Everyone that works at USN is a pretty resilient bunch.”
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Contact
Edgehill Campus
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
USN Mission:
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.