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Cary woman recounts escaping Nashville floods with pregnant daughter, 2 small children
Cary, N.C. — A Cary woman was glad rain was all they had to deal with while visiting her daughter in Nashville, Tennessee last month.
While thousands of people across the deep south were dealing with damage left behind from devastating tornadoes, she felt relieved to be in Nashville.
But on the night of March 27, water from those rains began to rise, forcing Lois Peterson, her pregnant daughter and her family – including two young children – to escape in the darkness through flood waters.
As floodwaters careened down the street and surrounded the Hennigans’ home in Nashville, Tennessee last month in the middle of the night, Peterson and her son-in-law Michael planned their family’s escape.
She remembers Michael asking: But do you think we will end up on the table? Do you think we’ll end up in the attic? At what point will we not be rescued?”
It was too late to escape by car – the vehicles were already flooded in rushing water.
They left everything behind and waded through the water to safety.
The water came all the way to Holli Hennigan’s neck. She was pregnant at the time. Lois was waist-deep in water.
They had no idea what to do next.
“Things went by,” said Lois. “Like the big tool chest that’s in the back of a pickup floated by.”
The family stayed at Holli’s office that night, where they found dry clothes – but when they returned to their home the next day, nothing was dry.
A foot of water had come inside the home destroying most of the family’s belongings.
Now, the Hennigans’ must rebuild their home and their lives, and with a baby on the way there’s no time to waste.
“It just seemed surreal. And then I think as you go back and think about it, it seems scarier,” said Lois.
She thinks back and worries about how much worse things could have been that night.
Michael and Holli and their 2 children lost most of their belongings in the flood, and have had to move out of their home while it is repaired. Holli’s baby is due any day now.
Family and friends have started a Go Fund Me campaign to help them get back on their feet.