SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — So many communities across our area are picking up the pieces after massive rainfall and strong winds this weekend.
According to the National Weather Service, after surveying the damage in Bedford and Rutherford counties Sunday, the service found evidence of an EF-1 tornado and 95 mile per hour winds.
For JP and Michele Spees, the storm came through while they were staying with their son and daughter-in-law who live in a house near Shelbyville.
"They've had rainstorms before where there was a little bit of flooding, but nothing like this," said JP Spees, a Texas man visiting family in Shelbyville Tennessee.
This weekend as the rain poured down the yard filled up.
"There's no ditch, there's no retention pond or anything that's just from the rain," Spees said.
Their son and daughter-in-law's house was no outlier, many properties in the area will be drying out for quite a while.
"Apparently they're going to have to do some drainage efforts to try to curtail this from future storms," Spees said.
Spees said his son and daughter-in-law's house held up well against the storm.
He credits the house's builder, who constructed it on a slight elevation.
"The contractor built their house up, they were fine," Spees said.
Experiencing a Tennessee storm may be a more frequent happening for the Spees' in years to come.
They're planning to move to the area to be closer to family.
While it hasn't changed their minds, they're taking the severity of Tennessee's storms into consideration when they're looking to buy.
"We've already hooked up with a realtor and said 'ok we like that house, where's the flood plain'," Spees said.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at robb.coles@newschannel5.com.
Fundraising efforts are underway in Brownsville and Nutbush, TN to build a statue for a major superstar who was raised there, Anna Mae Bullock. You probably know her by her stage name, Tina Turner. I was a huge fan of Tina and glad to see efforts are underway to showcase more of her ties to West Tennessee.
-Lelan Statom
