NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Various groups and neighborhoods plan to spend the weekend commemorating the one year anniversary of the historic May 2010 flood.
Floodwaters killed 10 people and caused damage to thousands of homes.
"Some homes you cannot get back into," Nashville Mayor Karl Dean said. "We are focused on flood relief and we are going to stay focused on that."
Mayor Dean made appearances at various events in flood impacted neighborhoods Saturday.
At Hartman Par, the North Nashville Recovery Team hosted a march from St. Luke's Community House to the park. A Volunteer Appreciation Celebration followed.
The recovery team works with people impacted by the flood who are still trying to rebuild their lives.
"We still have 93 people that are still displaced due to the flood," North Nashville Flood Relief Group Board Chair Gerry George said. "What we have been doing is working with organizations to get building supplies and get volunteers to come to their homes and help them build out."
George told Nashville's News 2 more than 4,000 volunteers have worked with the organization since the flood last year.
"Even though a lot of the cameras are gone and we are not on the front page anymore there are a lot of people displaced," he said. "A lot of people are still paying mortgages here but are living somewhere else so it's been a difficult road for a lot of people."
On Miami Avenue near the Pennington Bend area, neighbors gathered for "Mudstock," a block party to celebrate the neighborhood's recovery from the May flood.
The name was inspired by the mud left behind by the flood.
"When we were all rebuilding and all talking we were all saying one year from now we all need to celebrate the good things not the fact that we lost so much," organizer and neighbor Kim Goddard said.
Goddard and her husband were working in Iraq when the flood hit. She returned to her home nine days later.
"I started crying because when I came down the street and turned the corner it was like everybody's things were on the side of the road," she recalled.
Her home had more than four feet of water inside. She had to gut the bottom six feet of her home and rebuild.
Aside from losing her belongings, Goddard almost lost her son. He was stranded in the neighborhood after rescue boats could not evacuate him and two friends because of the flooding near their homes.
"They wanted us to go all the way to the end of the street to a safety boat but earlier in the day it was too deep," Casey Goddard said. "We walked through [a fence] and it was up to about our waist, when we got closer to Pennington Bend it was up to our neck."
He continued, "As soon as we stepped over the guardrail it was like another river it swept us out from under our feet and started taking us. To be honest I didn't think we were going to make it to the other side of the bridge because it was so strong."
Eventually all three men were able to make it to safety. The men's survival is one of the things neighbors are celebrating.
"It's wonderful we could all be back in our homes and back to the neighborhood we had," Kim Goddard said. "We love to do this kind of thing regularly."
Metro Councilman Phil Claiborne, who represents the neighborhood, added, "This was just like a lake down here with roof tops. It is just a testament to the spirit of this community."
More events are planned for Sunday and Monday to commemorate the one year anniversary of the May flood.
They include celebrations at the River Plantation Section II Clubhouse and a concert in the Riverwalk, Boone Trace and Lexington Point subdivisions on Sunday.
Monday, a ceremony is planned at the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge featuring performances by Vince Gill and the Nashville Symphony.
Boone Trace subdivision, Bellevue
Pennington Bend area
