CHRIS TALBOTT and SHEILA BURKE
Associated Press Writers
NASHVILLE – Nashville braced for more deaths Monday as the flooded Cumberland River continued to swell, sending muddy water rushing through neighborhoods and into parts of the historic heart of Music City after a destructive line of weekend storms killed 22 people in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.
The flash floods caught Nashville off-guard, and thousands of residents and tourists were forced to flee homes and hotels as the river that winds through the city rapidly spilled over its banks. Eleven of the 12 people killed in Tennessee drowned, including six in Nashville.
Using motor boats, jet skis and canoes, authorities and volunteers rescued scores of residents trapped in flooded homes, some which looked like islands surround by dark brown river water. Helicopters plucked stranded residents off of rooftops.