Flooding in Johnson City (Kingsport, Colonial Heights: for sale, insurance, mortgage)

[williboy]

Everytime we get a good amount of rain, downtown Johnson City floods. There are some serious drainage problems in the downtown area. I'm sure glad I don't work in that area.

[VirginiaB]

We are heading to NE TN next week to spend a week or so. We are looking at houses from JC to Kingsport. I've gotten a lot of info from these threads (you guys are the greatest) and the internet.

I'm not kidding myself~we will not be making a decision to move to NE TN based on this one visit, but the odds are it will be our new home in a year or so.

I have managed to find the FEMA flood site, but can't really understand it. Can you tell me if any of the following have flooding (I've heard some horror stories about flooded basements): Colonial Heights, Fordtown, Smith Shoals Subdivision, Flourville, Fourville, Gray

We live on a hill and our biggest threat here is wind (gotta love our Nor'easters). I'm a bit wary about flooding (well, more than just a bit) given all the flooding this country has suffered the past year and the news coverage it's received.

Any assistance on this subject would be appreciated. I've search the threads but have not come across anything that clearly describes the locations or how heavy the flooding is for any specific area.

[SarahSal]

Perhaps the best thing to do is ask your realtor to advise you on whether there's flood insurance on any property you might be interested in. Nowadays it seems that flood insurance is required by many mortgage lenders. But then again, we've owned a downtown property for 13 years and never had a problem with flooding (which is why this thread interested me). We obtained a mortgage several years ago - no flood insurance required. Then last year, suddenly it was - due to FEMA stating we were in a flood plain. I suspect that financially hard-hit insurance companies had a hand in this after Katrina and other disasters.

As to downtown flooding; there was a meeting last night to discuss this and an engineering study presented has determined ways to resolve some of the problems. Ancient, failing infrastructure and 2 creeks running underground, right through downtown don't help the situation. Hopefully, some of the solutions to this problem will be approved by the city commission. This (the flooding) *may* be one reason downtown JC's revival has not moved along as quickly as it should have. There certainly are many DT supporters and prop.owners who've worked hard for many years to make it happen!

[kamoshika]

Originally Posted by VirginiaB

I have managed to find the FEMA flood site, but can't really understand it. Can you tell me if any of the following have flooding (I've heard some horror stories about flooded basements): Colonial Heights, Fordtown, Smith Shoals Subdivision, Flourville, Fourville, Gray

Because the major rivers are dam-controlled and due to the hilly terrain, most flooding in NE Tenn. occurs from overflowing creeks. I've never heard of any flooding issues in any of the areas you listed, but I don't doubt that some localized spots have experienced problems.

Google Maps' terrain feature can be very helpful for checking out prospective homes or home sites, especially in getting a feel for the "lay of the land" in specific areas and in determining where the main creeks are located (Kendrick Creek in Colonial Heights, Sinking Creek in Fordtown, Snyder Creek in Flourville, Ford Creek & Cedar Creek in Gray).

Hope y'all enjoy your visit, just holler if you have additional questions!

[williboy]

The plans discussed to improve the flooding situation downtown called for five projects to be done over a 25 year period and they're still just talking. I'll be pushing up daisies in Jonesborough long before they really accomplish anything. They're working on TN time.

[gregetn]

As stated previously in this thread most issues regarding flooding in the area are due to creek overflows. With all the new subdivisions some problems are occuring with drainage basins overflowing but that is few and far between. The problems in downtown JC will continue to occur until a massive project is started to redo ancient culverts in the area. The biggest problem with JC is a lack of a centralized downtown- like many cities in the south there is a new downtown and an old downtown. The area effected by flooding is in the older section and the newer section with First Tennessee and the other taller bank buildings are mostly on high ground.

[VirginiaB]

Just returned from our Tri-City visit. Stayed a week and were sorry to have to come home to NY! We have a much better understanding of the area and I wanted to say thank you for the responses to my questions.

Of interest: We were around the Boone's Creek area and saw some houses for sale. Were told they were on TVA land, which meant that some of the land (back/front yard) could possibly be flooded, if the TVA moved their "markers". Haven't really investigated this yet, but it's something else to look into.

We've pretty much decided that the Colonial Heights area fits our needs, but will be doing more research on the area.

We found the Tri-city area to be remarkably like upstate NY...nice people, many stores, lots of mountains and valleys. Biggest difference: the sheer number and diversity of churches..or perhaps, their locations on main roads.

And, the gas prices are about .35 to .45 per gallon cheaper than NY!

We cannot wait to come back down.

Thanks again, to all.

[mbmouse]

Thanks for the trip report VirginaB, glad you had a nice trip. I agree, Colonial Heights is a nice area. I like that Warriors Path State park is there, very nice lake side park.