Flash Flood in Tipton County, Tennessee

Very heavy rain produced widespread flash flooding across Tipton County. Up to 20 inches of rain fell causing devastating damage to homes, businesses, roads and bridges. In fact, 40 roads were impassable in Tipton County due to the flooding. Twenty-one of those roads and 14 bridges were washed out as a result of the flooding. Other roads received damage just from the heavy rain. Damage was particularly bad in Atoka and Mason. Numerous vehicles were completely submerged in water. Two apartment complexes in Covington sustained major damage. In total, 309 homes received damage from the flooding. Of those, 96 homes were completely destroyed. As many as 93 businesses were flooded and of those 21 were completely destroyed. Nineteen mobile homes were flooded with 14 being destroyed. Many other structures or buildings were flooded as well. One fatality occurred in Mason. The flash flooding event transitioned into a flood event as rivers rose rapidly and overflowed their banks.

An upper level disturbance slowly approached the Mid-South during the evening of April 30th, 2010 as a cold front became stationary to the west. This pattern remained in place through the evening hours of May 2nd, 2010. South to southwest winds pumped warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and created a very unstable atmosphere. Showers and thunderstorms developed in association with the front during the early evening hours and moved east into Eastern Arkansas shortly before midnight. Additional thunderstorms occurred in association with the upper level disturbance. Due to the unstable atmosphere, thunderstorms quickly became severe producing large hail, damaging winds, and flash flooding. The severe weather evolved into an outbreak by May 1st and 2nd. Historic rainfall and flash flooding in addition to large hail and damaging winds occurred during the early morning hours of May 1st with several tornadoes occurring during the afternoon hours of May 1st to early morning hours of May 2nd.