Tennessee Gets Break from Downpour

The rains deluging Tennessee abated on Thursday but forecasters are predicting that the same storm system will bring more rain to the region over weekend.

Officials in Nashville are making plans for evacuations and sandbagging in case those measures should be necessary for downtown.

Drenching rains on Wednesday swept away a home, trapped drivers in their vehicles and derailed a train in Tennessee. A bridge outside Cookeville was washed away. No deaths have been reported.

The downpours have hit some of the same parts of Middle Tennessee that were inundated with severe flooding in May, but forecasters don’t foresee it wreaking the same kind of havoc. Portions of Middle and East Tennessee as well as areas of southern Kentucky and western North Carolina and Virginia have been under flash flood warnings or watches.

Much of the damage in Tennessee was in Putnam County, where a home floated off its foundation and a train carrying sand derailed when the tracks were washed away.