Some Homeowners Won’t Be Allowed to Rebuild, Worrying Others

Metro Councilmembers say many constituents in flood-hit areas of Nashville are afraid they won’t be allowed to rebuild their houses. That’s because homes that both took significant damage and lie directly in the floodway can’t receive building permits.

Metro Codes Director Terry Cobb told council members most of the 11,000 properties hit by the flood shouldn’t have any problem getting permission to rebuild.

“If 8,000 of the 11,000 are just fine, you’ve got 73 percent of them are fine; that leaves 3,000. A substantial number of that, probably the majority of those, are just fine.”

But Councilman Michael Craddock says some people in the floodway are still trying to repair. Craddock pointed to homes right along the river in the Pennington Bend neighborhood. He called on city officials to warn homeowners efforts to rebuild there are probably wasted.

A floodway and a floodplain are different. Water continually flows through a floodway, whereas it just backs up and sits in a floodplain. Metro’s top priority is to buy-out houses in floodways.

MAP:

Link to the city’s map of floodways and floodplains here.

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