Watch: Tennessee brothers continue late father's work to successfully protect family home from historic floods

BOGOTA, Tenn. – Brothers Justin and Tucker Humphreys grew up learning however to physique a levee from their begetter to support their puerility location from floods. After helium passed away, they would enactment his lessons to the trial against possibly the worst flood their municipality had seen successful astir a century.

That municipality is Bogota, with astir 100 radical nestled successful the northwestern country of Tennessee. Some of its claims to fame see a close-knit community, premier duck-hunting opportunities and sweeping farmlands arsenic acold the oculus tin see.

"To me, it’s home. To me, it’s our small portion of Heaven connected Earth," said husbandman and third-generation Bogota nonmigratory Justin Humphreys. "Because, arsenic engaged arsenic the satellite gets, arsenic hectic arsenic the satellite gets, present is quiet. Here is peaceful."

That peacefulness was disrupted earlier this period by a historical flood that slammed the area. The FOX Forecast Center said astir a ft of rainfall fell successful 3 days, submerging galore of Bogota’s homes, churches and its iconic farmlands nether murky brownish floodwater.

"It was a bittersweet time for our community," said Olivia Childress Fussell, besides a nonmigratory of Bogota. "Seeing a batch of radical seeing what they worked truthful hard for astir their full beingness being destroyed, it’s truly hard."

Of the 100 homes successful Bogota, astir 58 were destroyed by floodwaters, according to Fussell’s father, husbandman Wally Childress.

"We knew it was going to beryllium bad, and we started moving worldly to the precocious crushed earlier the rain, portion the upwind was inactive good," helium said. His location ended up being wholly flooded, starring him to determination successful with girl Olivia and her family.

Childress stands successful floodwater successful Bogota, Tennessee.

(Olivia Childress Fussell / FOX Weather)

Family helping family was a moving taxable passim the flooding of Bogota.

When the forecast called for dense rainfall and imaginable for floods, Humphreys, 38, and his member Tucker, 32, wanted to sphere the location that 3 generations of their household had built – and they did truthful by gathering a ungraded levee astir it.

Humphreys said his begetter had built the levee 3 times earlier to combat flooding passim the decades, teaching his sons on the way.

The archetypal clip his begetter built the levee, Humphreys said helium and his member were rather young, truthful they received lone a airy predisposition connected the machinery they could use. The adjacent 2 times, their begetter made definite that the young men understood the process and logic down it.

"He wasn’t an technologist oregon anything, but we similar to beryllium resilient astir present and fig it retired ourselves," Humphreys said.

That resilience was tested this year, not conscionable by the oncoming flood, but by the information that Humphreys and his member would physique the levee astir their puerility location for the archetypal clip without their father, who had passed distant 4 years ago.

Still surviving successful the location was their mother. To support her, particularly aft seeing however the adjacent municipality of Rives was destroyed by flooding respective weeks prior, Humphreys sent her to unrecorded successful his home, distant from wherever the floods would be.  

DRONE VIDEO SHOWS FLOODING IN RIVES, TENNESSEE

On Sunday, April 6, astir the clip erstwhile the ungraded became adust capable to enactment with and astir a week earlier the rains came, Humphreys said helium and his member began to physique the levee.

For the adjacent fewer days, they utilized their farm machinery to determination ungraded astir their location – moving a perimeter of astir 3 acres, and rising astir 6 feet gangly successful the beforehand and 9 and a fractional feet gangly successful the backmost to relationship for an incline. Then, they watched successful the days aft arsenic the floodwaters rose, and crested precocious Wednesday night.

Whether during the days the h2o level roseate oregon the days that followed Wednesday's crest erstwhile it dilatory fell, Humphreys and his member continued maintaining the levee, arsenic the winds pushed the floodwater against the ungraded they utilized to physique the levee, washing it away.

Aerial changeable of the Humphreys's location with the levee holding backmost the floodwaters, positive a zoomed successful changeable of the location and levee.

(Randy Moore via Storyful / FOX Weather)

As the brothers fought to support the h2o astatine bay, Humphreys said they were not unsocial successful their fight.

Fellow residents of Bogota brought them generators and different supplies, adjacent by boat, earlier the flooding became excessively high. Others helped bring successful a integrative screen to drape implicit the levee and forestall the ungraded from being washed away, on with sandbags to support the integrative screen successful place.

"In nary shape, signifier oregon manner was it a two-man show," helium said. "It was, by far, an full assemblage effort."

Because of the community, including neighbors whose ain homes were destroyed by the flood, Humphreys and his member were capable to safely enactment successful their fortressed location for 7 days.

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

Humphreys noted a mates of times erstwhile helium wondered whether the flood would overtake them, but helium and his member maintained their resolve, and yet stood beardown successful their religion successful God.

"Nothing’s imaginable without Him, nevertheless it played retired was gonna beryllium His will," Humphreys said. "Being faithful, being focused connected God, knowing his dependable manus volition usher america to immoderate ends, to immoderate means that’s we’re meant to bash is the astir important thing."

He besides kept successful caput the antheral who taught him and his member however to physique the levee, to beryllium resilient and to physique thing that tin support what they held astir beloved – his father. Humphreys said helium thought of him each passim the flood.

Drone footage done the municipality of Bogota aft the flood.

(Olivia Childress Fussell / FOX Weather)

He present hopes that telling their communicative volition assistance bring attraction to his neighbors successful Bogota, who ended up being displaced by the floods and are struggling during the betterment process.

Childress and Fussell started a GoFundMe page arsenic a mode to supply alleviation for their tiny town. They said they volition beryllium distributing donations among the dozens of residents who mislaid not lone their homes, but besides their anticipation for what the aboriginal holds.

"A woman said, ‘We’re losing each of our houses. We’re supra the flood plain, and we’re inactive gonna suffer them’," Childress said, recalling a speech helium had with a Bogota resident. "That conscionable touched thing successful america and we thought, if we could springiness them immoderate hope, we’re gonna try."

To enactment the radical of Bogota, you tin marque a donation to the Bogota, Tennessee Area Flood Fund leafage connected GoFundMe.