Yesterday, Chamber Chairman Bert Mathews testified on behalf of the Chamber and Nashville business community at the U.S. Senate hearing on the 2010 flood in Tennessee. The goal of this hearing, convened by Senator Lamar Alexander, was to “find out the facts of what happened and what lessons can be learned as we prepare for future floods.”
During his testimony, Bert shared the current data collected by both the Chamber and the Business Response Team concerning the flood’s economic impact on our business community:
In the past 12 weeks, we have worked with government and business to gather economic impact information and have learned that:
- More than 2,700 Davidson County businesses were impacted, accounting for nearly 15,000 jobs;
- An estimated 450 businesses have not reopened, and more than 1,500 jobs are unlikely to return;
- Businesses interviewed to date estimate losses over $300 million;
- Of these businesses, operating capacity is 39 percent and is expected to be 67 percent in 12 months;
- Other cities with past floods report that 30-60 percent of businesses affected could fail; and
- Support is critical in the first three weeks.
The flood has had a recession-like impact. Damages are expected to negate projected GDP gains, which effectively puts the region into its third consecutive year of recession.
View Bert’s entire testimony here.
Mayor Karl Dean testified about the events of May 1-2, including what was communicated to local government concerning river crest levels and amount of rain expected, and how local government responded to this information in order to keep our citizens and businesses safe. General John Peabody of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also shared information from their draft after-action review report on the flood, admitting several mistakes and communications mishaps.
To view the hearing in its entirety, visit the United States Senate Committee on Appropriates video archive on its website.