By Hollie Silverman, CNN
(CNN)Some of the heaviest rainfall in Nashville’s history caused flooding that killed at least six people over the weekend.
Authorities identified three of the six victims as men in their 60s and 70s who drowned after driving as floodwaters ravaged the area. One of them was swept away by floodwaters when he got out of his car.
So far seven weather-related deaths have been reported across the state, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said Monday. Six people were killed in the Nashville area and another in the northeast of the state.
More than 100 people had to be rescued from fast-rising waters that flooded communities and damaged homes and businesses, the Nashville Fire Department said in an update Sunday night.
Cars are submerged by ponding water on Interstate 24 near Antioch Pike in Nashville on Sunday, March 28.
Cars are submerged by ponding water on Interstate 24 near Antioch Pike in Nashville on Sunday, March 28.
A resident from one apartment building in Antioch, south of Nashville, told CNN affiliate WZTV that she woke up to a mudslide compromising the building.
“You don’t think that tiny little creek can get that vicious,” Abbe Bolduc told the affiliate. She was one of 15 people rescued from the CityVue Apartments Sunday, WZTV reported.
Mayor John Cooper announced late Sunday on Twitter that he had declared a state of emergency to help get local and federal resources to recover from the devastation.
“Metro’s first responders have worked tirelessly following the city’s second-highest ever two-day rainfall, which flooded neighborhoods across the county,” Cooper said in another tweet.
The flood is one of the latest tragedies to befall the city of Nashville, which in the last year has experienced a damaging tornado, a deadly derecho and a Christmas morning bombing.
