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Clarksville resident describes repeated flood damage, urges council to act
Summary
A Clarksville homeowner described losing most of her belongings for a second time in under nine months and urged the City Council to take "meaningful, substantial, swift" action; the mayor pointed residents to a city response website and said the city is coordinating with state and federal partners for potential FEMA relief.
Candace Payne, a homeowner and owner of 1580 Alberta Bridal, told the Clarksville City Council on Feb. 18 she is a two-time flood victim whose house sustained severe damage in the city's latest heavy rain event and urged the council to take action.
"I literally had to dig through totes this time to pull out my high school diploma and my college diploma and my work certifications," Payne said, describing personal losses and saying she cannot enter her house. She asked the council to consider demolition of the home and requested "meaningful, substantial, swift changes." Payne said several neighbors remain without heat and that the flooding problem has persisted in the neighborhood for decades.
Mayor (name not specified) addressed the council earlier in the meeting about the same storm event, thanking city departments for their response and directing residents who need help to the city's online registration portal at cmcresponse.org. "This will not be a quick or easy nor inexpensive problem to fix, but we will get to the bottom of it," the mayor said and added the city is "working closely as we did today with state and federal governments to make FEMA relief available as quickly as possible." The mayor also thanked the street, fire rescue, police and electricity departments for their response.
Payne said she has been before the council multiple times over the prior nine months about recurring flooding at her property and that the most recent event left the home's interior submerged to a degree she described as greater than prior floods. "This shouldn't be the case," she said. "I'm still paying a mortgage and utilities on somewhere that I can't even go to. That's unacceptable." Payne concluded by congratulating the newly appointed chief of police, saying "we need change."
The council invited public comments per its code, allowing up to three speakers with five minutes each. After Payne spoke, the council moved to a closed attorney-client briefing; no additional public comments were recorded in the transcript. No formal council action, funding commitment, or timeline for remediation was announced during the public comment period recorded in the transcript.
