A Hermitage family of seven has been living with relatives for months after floodwater tore into their Port Anadarko Trail home, and Nashville officials say there's no capital improvements project on the horizon that would keep it from happening again. Kendre Streeter and his wife, first-time homeowners with five children ages 17, 15, 12, 11 and a newborn, are now navigating flood insurance complications while staying with relatives as repairs are made.
The flooding that hit their home came during heavy rainfall in July 2026 that submerged portions of Port Anadarko Trail in Hermitage, according to a Facebook video documenting neighbors' cleanup efforts. Floodwater entered the Streeter home through its vents, garage, front door and back door, as first reported by NewsChannel 5 Nashville. Metro Water Services confirmed the home and surrounding properties sit in a FEMA-designated 100-year floodplain, meaning a 1% chance of flooding in any given year and roughly a 26% chance of flooding over the life of a 30-year mortgage.
A Floodway Problem With No Engineering Fix
Part of the Streeter property sits within a floodway, the station's report notes — the highest-risk zone where high-velocity water flows during flood events, and where flooding simply cannot be engineered away. Metro Water Services said the homes on Port Anadarko Trail were built before current stormwater standards took effect. Current regulations require homes built in a floodplain to be constructed four feet above base flood elevation, and they prohibit new homes from being built in a floodway at all — rules that came too late for the Streeters' house.
Nashville council member Erin Evans, who walked the property with Kendre Streeter and Metro stormwater's Ricky Swift, told the same outlet that no capital improvements project would potentially save the family from being flooded again. Metro Water Services said elevation or relocation are the only real options left to avoid future flood losses in the floodway. Streeter said he understands why: fixing the area would be tremendously expensive because the whole ravine would need work, per the report.
Buyouts, Insurance, and What's Actually Available
A FEMA buyout is one additional option on the table, but Evans said restoration costs would need to reach at least half the property's value before the family could potentially qualify — and even then, qualification requires that buyout funding actually be available. That's not a hypothetical constraint in Davidson County: in May 2026, Metro Nashville Council approved more than $1 million to purchase three flood-prone residential properties along Whites Creek and nearby areas through Metro Water Services' buyout fund, according to WZTV. That buyout program traces back to the historic May 2010 flood, which caused an estimated $3.6 billion in commercial losses across 2,700 damaged businesses and prompted Metro Nashville to launch a $64 million buyout effort targeting more than 300 vulnerable homes, per background from the Cumberland River Compact.
Streeter's flood insurance policy covers some things based on the home's previous owners but does not cover others, including temporary housing, and the station's report notes the home had flooded under those previous owners as well. Streeter said he knew the home was in a flood zone when he bought it, but he did not realize part of the property was in a floodway. Swift recommended Streeter gather documentation from this flood and previous floods, along with repair costs, to support any future claim.
What Homebuyers Can Check Before They Sign
Streeter said homebuyers should have security that they and their investment will be taken care of. Metro Water Services said flood insurance is available to all Davidson County property owners through the National Flood Insurance Program, and residents can check their own flood risk using Nashville's flood map tool or FEMA's flood maps before buying. Tennessee's Residential Property Disclosure Act separately requires sellers to disclose known water intrusion, flood damage history, or flood zone status, according to background compiled by Ridley.
For homes declared substantially damaged, FEMA's Increased Cost of Compliance coverage may provide up to $30,000 to help elevate, floodproof, relocate or demolish a structure, per FEMA guidance. Even where fill or grading might seem like a fix, Metro's floodplain rules require any fill placed in a mapped floodplain to be offset by excavating an equal volume of soil from the same floodplain, so floodwaters aren't simply pushed onto a neighbor's land, according to Metro Nashville's stormwater office.
A Nationwide Pattern Behind One Family's Ordeal
The Streeters' situation reflects a broader pattern flagged in a March 2026 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, which found unmitigated repetitive flood loss properties nationwide had grown to 227,000 — just 2.5% of active National Flood Insurance Program policies, yet responsible for 48% of all claim payouts historically. University of Tennessee Knoxville research cited in land-use analyses has projected U.S. flood risk expanding by 26.4%, translating to roughly $32.1 billion in annual economic losses, according to an analysis from LandBoss. Nashville has grappled with similar floodway tensions elsewhere in the city, including a Bellevue apartment fight over floodway variances along the Harpeth River earlier this summer. For now, the Streeters remain with relatives, waiting on repairs and an answer that, for homes like theirs sitting in a floodway, may simply not exist.
