Five Dead In Tennessee Storms

(AP)  A couple drowned and their son was critically injured when the family's car ran off a road and into a rain-swollen creek, bringing Tennessee's storm-related death toll to five.

More than 8 inches of rain has fallen in some areas since Wednesday, swamping roads, spilling creeks over their banks, damaging homes and forcing schools to close.

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said Friday that at least 25 of Tennessee's 95 counties had flood damage. Central Tennessee was hardest hit, especially south of Nashville.

Jeffrey Ashby, 31, and his wife Melissa, 34, drowned Thursday night when their small sedan ran off a Bedford County road, down an embankment and overturned into a creek, authorities said. The couple lived in nearby Normandy, about 60 miles southeast of
Nashville.

Jeffrey Ashby died at the scene; Melissa Ashby died Friday at a hospital.

Their 7-year-old son Treet was in critical condition Friday, a hospital spokesman said.

The highway patrol was investigating why the car ran off the road.

On Thursday, canoers found the body of a woman who apparently drowned after leaving her car to look at a swollen creek that was crossing a road in Wilson County just east of Nashville.

On Wednesday, a city worker in Cookeville was swept away while trying to unclog a flooded drainage pipe. A man who stopped to help also died.

Several rivers near Nashville were expected to crest above flood stage Friday. National Weather Service hydrologist Mike Murphy said the Duck River in Columbia was forecast to crest at 48 feet - 16 feet above flood stage - by afternoon. Murphy said that would be the highest crest at Columbia since 1975.

"We think at 48 feet it will cause extensive evacuation of homes and businesses," he said.

Friday's forecast offered a break from the rain. The next chance of rain was not until Tuesday.



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