Trucks parked at Nashville TA. (Photo Todd Dills)

Heavy rains last Friday and Saturday triggered flooding in the Southeast, killing 19, swamping freeways and stranding hundreds of truckers and other motorists.

Eleven of the deaths were reported in western and central Tennessee where the deluge closed Interstates 24, 40 and 65 in Nashville among numerous highways over the weekend. (See Truckers News blog of Marathon Trucker, who’s stranded in Music City.)

The situation at the downtown Nashville TravelCenters of America location was dire for truckers since early yesterday, May 2. “About 6 a.m. [Sunday],” said Roehl Transport company driver Ryan Lavengood, of Marshfield, Wis., “the northeast corner of the lot started filling up.”

“By 11 o’clock that night, the TA was filling up in the shop. And about 1 o’clock they shut it all down,” said James Williams of Tonitown, Ark., a P.A.M. Transport driver who was on his way to pick up a load in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., when he was stranded in downtown Nashville.

As early as 10 a.m. Sunday, Williams said, drivers and TA personnel were calling 911, requesting rescue assistance in the flooded lot, but removal of people from a nearby Salvation Army facility and elsewhere took priority. Drivers moved their trucks from the TA lot under the adjacent James Robertson Parkway to an empty lot nearby, where they waited out the storm and rising waters. Monday morning, said Williams, that lot was “full of trucks,” including his and Lavengood’s.

Monday noon CDT Lavengood said, “I was supposed to be in Lakeland, Fla., at 13:15 Eastern. I’ve heard that 24 east is still shut down, though. My dispatcher told me just to stay put. There’s no sense in getting out there and not being able to go anywhere.”

The Marathon diesel terminal adjacent to the TA likewise was under water, and the entire area smelled of the fuel as hazmat teams attempted to identify leaks.