TENNESSEE: Weekend floods damage at least one Episcopal church
Episcopal News Service. May 3, 2010 [050310-03]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Two days of record rain in the Nashville area have damaged buildings at St. George's Episcopal Church and closed the Diocese of Tennessee offices.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow parishioners and neighbors in Tennessee as we deal with the effects of the rainstorms experienced in the state over this past weekend," Bishop John Bauerschmidt said in a statement posted on the diocesan website May 3. "We are mindful of the loss of life and the damage caused to homes and businesses, which is still being assessed."
He reported "significant flooding … with damage to buildings" at St. George's Church, Nashville. The home of the Rev. Rob Courtney, rector of St. James the Less Episcopal Church in Madison, Tennessee, was also flooded, the bishop said. Courtney lives in the Bellevue area of Nashville, which was reportedly hard-hit by the rains.
Bauerschmidt said that the diocesan offices were closed May 3 due to a reported levee leak near the MetroCenter area of Nashville, and an accompanying evacuation of the area.
"Other reports indicate that many of our parishioners in Middle Tennessee have been affected, at homes and places of business, by these storms," the bishop wrote. "We ask for your continued prayers for our region and for its people."
The Associated Press reported that a destructive line of weekend storms killed 21 people in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky, at least 12 of them in Tennessee. Six people have died in the Nashville area, according the Tennessean newspaper.
"It's shocking to see it this way, but it was an incredible storm," the AP quoted Nashville Mayor Karl Dean as saying while he surveyed the downtown flooding. The Cumberland River was expected to crest the afternoon of May 3 at 11 feet above flood stage, and officials worried they may find more bodies in the rising floodwaters, the AP said.
The Nashville Business Journal reported that just over 13.5 inches fell at the Nashville International Airport on May 1 and 2, more than doubling the previous two-day record rainfall of 6.68 inches set in September 1979.
Meanwhile, the diocese's Christ Church Cathedral in Nashville was forced to cancel an organ concert and choral evensong that had been planned for the afternoon of May 2.
"Please stay at home," read the cancellation notice on the cathedral's website.