The remnants of Hurricane Harvey packed enough punch to bring severe weather,tornadoes, flooding and evacuations to Middle Tennessee.
The brunt of the storm, however, didn’t cause nearthe type of historic flooding seen in Houston, Texas, where Harvey left 46 peopledead as of Friday, destroyingordamaging thousands of homes.
The tropical depression did cause its share of problems as itdumped up to 10 inches of rain late Thursday early Friday in portions of the region — the hardest coming inRobertson County.
More:Harvey's heavy rains have some Nashville residents rethinking lifelong roots, again
More:Forecasters confirm EF-1 tornado touched down in northern Davidson County
The storm left Middle Tennessee waterways swollen, shut down roads and closed schools.
“Some people weren’t so lucky, there were some cases where people lost property,” said Sam Herron, a Nashville National Weather Service meteorologist, of the storm's impact. "Overall, we came out pretty good compared to what it could have been.”
"It's weird to suddenly be the victim"
The water from the deluge causedflooding throughout the area.
Sulphur Forks in Robertson County overflowed its banks and spilled over bridges. Nashville’s Whites Creek rose from 3 feet to 15 feet Thursday evening, peaking around 1 a.m. on Friday.
Evacuations along Whites Creek were voluntary, but about 30 people left their homesand stayed at a Nashville shelter set up for flood victims – a portion of those from the Chestnut Flats Apartments on Lewis Street.
More:Robertson's Red River to reach major flood stage, rain still falling as Harvey heads north
As the waters rose at Browns Creek near the Nashville fairgrounds, all of the complex's 13 residents, including two children, fledto safety.
Richard Williams recounted the harrowing 11:30 p.m. wake-up call by a neighbor as water began gushing into his apartment. He said thatwhen he got out of bed, the water was already knee-deep.
"It came up to my waist just like that," he said.
Michael Wiederspiel said his mind went to the victims of Houstonas he and his neighbors were warned they needed to evacuate their apartments. He grabbed his guitar and a few bags of valuables, just in case, as he got on the MTA bus used to evacuate residents.
"It's weird to suddenly be the victim," he said.
At least two tornadoes touched down in Middle Tennessee
Harvey moved slowly through the area, but the heaviest of rains were limited despite the constant 24-hour downpour, according toHerron.
“The heaviest rain was pretty narrowly focused,” Herron said. “So for some locations that experienced flooding, it certainly was really bad.As far as widescale impacts, they were much much less than we had in 2010."
More:How the rain from Harvey compares to the 2010 Nashville flood
During the historic 2010 flooding, the storm system stalled over Middle Tennessee and clogged main riverarteries.The Cumberland rose to an all-time record 51 feet.
On Friday, the Cumberland River rose to 27 feet at the National Weather Service’s gauge point downtown. The levels were well short of the flood level of 40 feet.
As of Friday, most watersheds throughout the region were below well below flood levels.
But rapidly rising waters weren’t the only concern from Harvey.
More:Harvey hits Nashville Area: Full list of closures, cancellations
The Nashville National Weather Service confirmed two Nashville tornadoes during the storm, an EF1 tornado touched down in the Bordeaux area and an EF-0 near Lake Sevier in Shelby Park.Several tornado warnings were issued in Middle Tennessee on Thursdaynight, during the most severe parts of the storm. An EF-0 tornado also was confirmed in Mount Pleasant in Maury County.
The 11:30 p.m. EF-1 tornado north of Nashville brought winds of about 95 mph and traveled about .7 mile, Herron said.
It caused damage to a house’s roof and caused exterior damage to others. Two car ports also collapsed and several large trees were snapped or uprooted. No injuries or fatalities were reported, Herron said
Sustained winds of 15 to 25 miles per hour and gusts near 40 miles per hour also hammered the region.
On Friday morning, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office confirmed it had received reports of two sinkholes, one on the shoulder of Interstate 24 East at mile marker 9.5, and the other on Vaughn Road.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation confirmed that the sinkhole has posed problems beforeand on Friday was getting closer to the far right lane, though two lanes remain open while state geotechnical engineers at the site to investigate.
Another sink hole was reported in Williamson County at Chester Road and Birch Bark Drive, where Fairview police had closed the road.
'Massive' damage at Nashville Goodwill
Nashville deactivated its emergency operations center after less than 24 hours.
Most of thedamage was contained, although at one point about 10,000 homes were without power.
Overnight flooding at Nashville's Goodwill warehouse downtown left the nonprofit with amass of"wet, softened, toppled and broke open" cardboard boxes.
More:Goodwill reports thousands of boxes of donated clothing ruined from Harvey flooding
Spokesman Chris Fletcher said the extent of the damage was not yet known, but "the loss of donated goods will be massive."
“We recognize that our losses pale in comparison to those suffered by storm victims in Texas and the Gulf Coast, and we encourage everyone to contribute to disaster relief efforts for those areas,” said Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee CEO and President Matthew Bourlakas.
“At the same time, we are heartbroken that donations that were generously given to us have been destroyed, and we welcome donations to help us overcome this unfortunate setback.”
Natalie Allison, Mary Hance, Nate Rau, Adam Tamburin and Emily West contributed to this report.
Reach Jason Gonzales at jagonzales@tennessean.com and on Twitter@ByJasonGonzales.
