One year after the Waverly Flood, a neighborhood near Trace Creek struggles to rebuild

WAVERLY, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's not just the one-year mark of the Waverly flood that has Debra Ashton in tears. It's the forecast.

"It’s supposed to rain this weekend," said Ashton, her voice quivering. "It’s been a tough 12 months. I’ll tell ya. A tough 12 months."

When you see the video of Ashton trapped on the roof of her submerged truck, during the height of the 2021 flood that inundated Waverly, you can understand why.

"A wave in the middle of this ocean here thrusts me off the top of my truck about 8-10 feet in the water. Of course, I go under and kept going under and I said, 'God you’ve got to provide me an anchor,'" Ashton told us back in 2021. "Well suddenly, here it comes."

She latched onto a piece of wood to keep her head above water, as she traveled nearly four blocks in a rushing current. Eventually, she was able to climb onto a roof where three others were waiting for help.

"They said, 'Debra how are we going to get down from here?' I said, 'well God didn’t save us to leave us up here for the rest of our life. God’s going to send us a helicopter'," she said.

Debra survived the ordeal, but her house and her childhood home next door were reduced to rubble.

"You can’t help but remember of what was here. What’s gone," said Ashton.

That's why she started to look at homes far away from the banks of Trace Creek.

"I probably told you last time, I could never live back here," said Ashton. "This is home to me. You know, I played as a little girl at that house. My daughter played as a little girl at that house."

A pile of red dirt marks the spot Debra's new home will rise, with the help of UMCOR — the United Methodist Committee on Relief. But for many of her neighbors, their homes look the same as they did the day after the flood, the houses have been demolished or for sale signs have taken their place. "There’s a lot of my friends that have had to move away," said Ashton.

Debra worries it will never be the same. "It never will be. There are probably, I tried to count one day. There’s probably 60 homes gone over in this area," she said.

But as Debra forecasts her own future, she prays it will be clear skies ahead.

"When you come back next year, you know, I’ll have a new house here, the grass will be all mowed and neat," she said. "God will carry me through this weekend."

While Ashton is dreading the one-year mark this weekend, there is one aspect that she's looking forward to. One of the women who was trapped on the roof of the gas station during the flood, is meeting up with her for the first time since that fateful day.