After historic flooding, amount of parish, community support is ‘phenomenal’
By Katie Peterson, Catholic News Service
EarthBeat
August 26, 2021
WAVERLY, TENNESSEE — Henry Kersten was pacing back and forth inside his family's home in Waverly Aug. 21 when he saw the backyard shed being carried off by the flood waters. His wife, Leslie, was trapped inside.
“It was amazingly fast,” Kersten said. “She was trying to save some things [in the shed]. We never knew the extent that was going to come because we were going by the last flood that we had two years ago.”
The water “started to seep into the shed, and then it came so fast that she didn’t feel safe coming out,” he recalled in an interview with the Tennessee Register, newspaper of the Nashville Diocese. “She called me on the phone, told me that she loved me and our children.”