Flooding in Tennessee

Last weekend, powerful thunderstorms drenched Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi, dumping over 13 inches of rain on the region in two days. Creeks, lakes and rivers swelled with the rainwater, overflowing their banks, washing away roads, and causing the deaths of at least 24 people so far. The Cumberland River, which winds through downtown Nashville, Tennessee, crested Monday at 51.9 feet, 12 feet above flood stage, spilling into the city and surrounding neighborhoods. As the waters are now receding, cleanup and recovery begins, as municipal workers begin to repair power supplies and water treatment plants, and residents return to their homes to recover what they can. (38 photos total)

The Cumberland River floods outside of its banks Tuesday on May 4, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. More than 13 inches of rain fell over two days, more than doubling the previous record of 6.68 inches and leaving as many as 18 dead in Tennessee, including nine in Nashville. (Jeff Gentner/Getty Images)

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Ira Godsy, who lives in the Knights Motel in East Nashville, wades out to his car, Sunday, May 2, 2010. Most of the cars were underwater due to storms that brought heavy flooding and tornados to the region over the weekend. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, John Partipilo) #

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A car is pinned up against a tree by floodwater flowing under a bridge on Sunday, May 2, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. Severe storms dumped heavy rain on Tennessee for the second straight day. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) #

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Jackson Police and Madison County Sheriff's Department close Airport Road near McKenzie Store to rescue a woman washed off the road by high flood waters during heavy storms in Jackson, Tennessee, Saturday, May 1, 2010. (AP Photo/The Jackson Sun, Morris Abernathy) #

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Buildings and city streets are still under floodwater as the sun sets on May 4, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Jeff Gentner/Getty Images) #

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Houses are surrounded by water from Cumberland river after heavy rains from the weekend in Nashville, Tennessee May 4, 2010. (REUTERS/M. J. Masotti Jr.) #

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Airplanes sit partially submerged in floodwater at the Cornelia Fort Airpark Tuesday, May 4, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #

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Donald Sweat and Sarah Tippett take photos of a railroad bridge that was washed off its foundations when floodwaters swelled the creek that leads to the Lebanon square, Lebanon, Tennessee on Sunday, May 2, 2010. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, Larry McCormack) #

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The General Jackson Showboat floats in the Cumberland River as the Opry Mills shopping complex stands in floodwaters from the Cumberland River in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday, May 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) #

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A house is surrounded by floodwater Tuesday, May 4, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #

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The loading docks at the Opryland Hotel are flooded and damaged from heavy rains on Monday, May 3, 2010. All of the estimated 1,500 guests were evacuated overnight. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, John Partipilo) #

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Michael Bunch wades on a flooded downtown sidewalk in Nashville, Tennessee on Monday May 3, 2010. (Rusty Russell/Getty Images) #

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Shipping containers float in floodwater Tuesday, May 4, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #

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State vehicles sit stranded in a parking lot on May 4, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Rusty Russell/Getty Images) #

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Floodwater from the Cumberland River creeps into downtown Nashville, Tennessee, Monday, May 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #

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Residents remove flood debris from their homes Tuesday, May 4, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #

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Gabe Gardiner, left, sits with a neighbor on his living room sofa outside his flood damaged home in the River Walk subdivision of in Nashville, Tennessee, Tuesday, May 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Frederick Breedon) #

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People paddle canoes down a street in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday, May 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) #

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Lighthouse Christian School teacher Heather Harrell reacts after finding her grandmother's Bible in her classroom that was destroyed by the flood in Antioch, Tennessee on Monday, May 3, 2010. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, Shelley Mays) #

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An American flag hangs on a fence to dry as Lighthouse Christian School student Noah Jackson,12, cleans debris from his school athletic fields in Antioch, Tennessee on Monday, May 3, 2010. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, Shelley Mays) #

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Cars and other debris are piled on top of each other after flooding on Antioch Pike near Nashville, Tennessee on Monday, May 3, 2010. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, Shelley Mays) #

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Kim Shaw and wife Jennie watch floodwaters from the swollen Loosahatchie River encroach on their front lawn in the Waverfly Farms area south of Millington, Tennessee, Sunday, May 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Lance Murphey) #

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Messages are written on cabinets outside a home that was flooded, Tuesday, May 4, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #

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Clare Baker, right, hugs her friend, Melinda Murphy, as Murphy leaves after helping Baker salvage items from Baker's flood-damaged home on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) #

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Metro Fire Department Special Operation rescues a Belle Meade police officer off Harding Road in Belle Meade, Tennessee on Sunday May 2, 2010. Police officer Norm Shelton was clinging to a tree for an hour before being rescued. The location of his patrol car is unknown. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, Shelley Mays) #

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A sign in River Front Park becomes visible once again as the waters of the Cumberland River slowly started to ebb across from LP Field, Tuesday, May 4, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/(M. Spencer Green) #

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A vehicle rests upside down in a sink hole which opened on West Forest Avenue during heavy storms just west of Madison County General Hospital on Saturday, May 1, 2010 in Jackson, Tennessee. The vehicle's driver was rescued and taken to the hospital. (AP Photo/The Jackson Sun, Morris Abernathy) #

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Kristi Hellerman walks her daughter Kallie Cox, 3, through their flooded neighborhood near Pleasant Planes, Saturday, May 1, 2010 in Jackson, Tennessee. (AP Photo/The Jackson Sun, Beth Spain) #

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The roof of an SUV is just visible, submerged in floodwaters covering downtown streets and sidewalks May 3, 2010 in the Lower Broad district of Nashville, Tennessee. (Rusty Russell/Getty Images) #

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A flooded neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee, is seen Monday, May 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) #

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Jennifer Coleman walks down a ditch where a car identified by family members as belonging to Bill and Frankie Rutledge, Coleman's aunt and uncle, was found Monday, May 3, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Ed Rode) #

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Robert Turner describes the rapid rise of water in his home May 4, 2010 in the Bordeaux district of Nashville, Tennessee. (Rusty Russell/Getty Images) #

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Cars and trucks sit covered with debris as they wait to be cleared from I-24 eastbound toward Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The wooden structure to the left is the porch of a building that floated down I-24 earlier according to TDOT workers on the scene. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, Tom Stanford) #

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A woman wades through floodwaters on a downtown sidewalk May 3, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Rusty Russell/Getty Images) #

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A Nashville Fire Department boat patrols the Cumberland River Tuesday, May 4, 2010, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #

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The inside of a water damaged car is seen in a severely flooded West Nashville neighborhood on May 4, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Jeff Gentner/Getty Images) #

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Carrie Johnson cleans photographs salvaged from the flood-damaged home of her friend, Clare Baker, on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) #

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Dover Anthony sings on as he overlooks the parking lot of submerged cars at the Knights Motel in East Nashville, Sunday, May 2, 2010. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, John Partipilo) #