MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WTVF) — Springtime brings sunshine and baseball, but, as we've seen it also brings severe weather and occasional flooding and this past weekend, those two collided.
Now, thousands of kids in Mt. Juliet are going to have to find somewhere else to play ball -- at least temporarily.
When it floods anywhere near Cedar Creek there is going to be trouble. The banks overflowed early Sunday morning sending water, debris and even snakes onto the Mt. Juliet League Park.
"When it comes over the berm it becomes a river that takes everything in it path," said Vice-mayor Ray Justice.
Imagine, for one very soggy Saturday night the fields of dreams at the park became fields of streams and Justice said the aftermath is a mess.
"This is a lot of debris and we'll be picking it up to get rid of it."
Clearing away the debris is one thing, but the bleachers, fences and yes, especially nearly all of the thirteen fields now need to be repaired.
"I tried going one of the fields and my shoe got stuck in it so that was not so good," said 10-year-old Payton Stewart.
She is just one of the hundreds of kids who play ball here. In fact, the spring season kicked off just last week.
When she learned her game was canceled, Payton wanted to come out to see the damage for herself. "Yeah, when I came over here I didn't think it was good, but I know they will rebuild it and it will be better," she said.
Payton is right about that, but it's going to take money and time. There is an estimated $250,000 in damage for a non-profit league that gets by with donations player fees and sponsorships.
These fields have been swamped before -- the historic flood of 2010 did very similar damage. Justice says they cleaned things up then and were back playing it a couple of weeks. He expects they'll do it again.
"This community will step up. It is what we do. We are Mt. Juliet and we are strong."
A Go Fund Me account: Save Mt. Juliet League Park is set up if you would like to donate.
