As major flooding inundated western Tennessee last week, one family was prepared — buoyed by techniques that have kept their house safe from river surges for decades.
Tucker Humphrey and his brother Justin, both farmers in Bogota, Tennessee, used an excavator to build a levee that protected their family’s home as a catastrophic storm ripped through the middle of the country earlier this month. At least 29 people were killed across seven states and some communities — including Bogota — saw massive flooding.
Aerial footage that showed the Humphrey home as the only untouched residence in a sea of brown floodwater went viral.
“Just normal things around here,” said Tucker, 32. “Doing what we have to do to save the house.”
The family has always built levees when floods threatened the home. It’s a technique perfected by the brothers’ father, who died several years ago.
Tucker said he wasn’t used to the internet attention, but he thought his father would be proud. “He’d like seeing that,” Tucker said. “He’d know we were listening when we were kids.”
The barrier, which rose up to nine feet tall in some places, Tucker said, walled the house off from flooding that soaked the rest of the community. As heavy rain pelted Bogota at the beginning of April, the Obion River, which runs adjacent to the town, rose about nine feet in as many hours during the storm. It then continued to rise as water funneled into the area. The flooding peaked on April 8 about five feet below the record.
Some 100 people were rescued last week, as flooding from the Obion and Mississippi rivers started to rush into homes, said Dyer County Fire Chief James Medling.
Water rescue teams worked through the night of April 7, ferrying stranded residents to drier ground in small rubber boats. Tucker saw the vessels from his yellow excavator, as he and his brother continued to shore up the protective wall.
“We have the equipment ourselves,” he said. “We’re very fortunate.”
Since then, the river has come back down to a minor flood stage, but that may be stalled or even reversed with more rain on the way later this week.
Tucker said even if the flooding got worse he’d never consider leaving the area. He’d just build a higher wall.
“I’ll build it 30 feet tall if I got to,” he said.
