Willie Henderson Charpentier, president of the Troup High School class of 1980, had an important meeting in LaGrange on Monday night - helping plan the 30th class reunion.

But her plans to attend the meeting and visit parents Robert and Colleen Henderson while in LaGrange got a sidetracked as Charpentier and her family were evacuated from their Franklin, Tenn., home as a result of the weekend flooding in middle Tennessee.

“It was just so surreal,” she said Monday. “Saturday, we were at our house and were going to visit a neighbor. When we were there, we saw how the river had started rising. … We’re probably two football field away from the West Harpeth River. … While we were at a friend’s home, a neighbor called and asked us if we could come help them. … It took us about an hour an half to get home, where normally it would have been less.”

When they got home, Charpentier, her husband and children had to walk through their front yard, which was slowly becoming “engulfed with water. When we walked to the front of the house, the water came to our knees.”

The Charpentiers watched as the water continued to rise, and “it was like two feet away from our house, and had started going in our garage - and that was just with the first storm. … After that one passed, it seemed like the water was receding.”

And then the second storm came.

“It was around 7:30 that night, and the water was about 3 inches from coming into our house,” she said.

The Charpentiers had moved all the furniture from the lower level of their home to the upstairs and had taped their front door shut.

“We didn’t want the water to come into the house,” she said.

At one point, Charpentier recalled, “We heard screaming. A family had tried to leave in their car and were unable to get out. The water came up to their windows. My husband and son had to go get the family.”

It was then that they noticed these “huge yellow trucks, almost like buses, pull up. There was a dozen or more. It was the National Guard. They knocked and said they were evacuating our neighborhood. They told us that they couldn’t make us leave, but they strongly suggested it,” Charpentier said.

“My 82-year-old mother-in-law lives with us, and we just decided we better go,” Charpentier said. ” We had to go out our window, and one of the men, who was over 6 feet tall, carried my mother-in-law to the truck. She’s Japanese and a very small woman. We grabbed toiletries and a few odds and ends, and the rest of us climbed out the window and waded through waist-deep water in what was once our front yard.”

The Charpentiers spent the night at a friend’s home in nearby Brentwood and were able to return Monday to their home, about 18 miles from downtown Nashville. Most of the day was spent cleaning and drying out the home and assisting neighbors. The middle Tennessee area received 18 inches of rain over the weekend.

“I didn’t get to come to the committee meeting, but I will be in LaGrange for the reunion,” Charpentier said.

Becky Holland can be reached at bholland@lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 229.