What Made the Waverly Flood A Catastrophic Fresh Water Tsunami?

NO ONE DENIES THAT 15-17 INCHES OF RAIN falling in 6-8 hours over a big area, some of it 300' higher than than the town of Waverly, would be devastating to anyone or anything on or near the little creek that runs through the town.   

Still, Waverly, Tennessee was established on the floodplain of little Trace Creek in the early 19th century and has endured many flash floods over the years. It's always managed to bounce back. But the nearest complete washout of the town almost two weeks ago was of such  magnitude, it may never come back completely to its former glory.

I've heard a number of residents who lost family members, friends, homes,  possessions say they want to relocate and never rebuild in Waverly. Who could blame them?

What could have possibly  made this flood so much worse than all the others? 

First,  the raised railroad bed running alongside the little creek acted as a levee---with few, if any large culverts to release the growing water pressure--- which held back the rapidly  rising rainfall on Trace Creek for miles upstream as it dropped some 300' from McEwen, TN.  

Then there a railroad bridge downstream with  bridge abutment that got so clogged with debris that it became a  Hoover-like dam for water held in by the railroad levee.  

The railroad bridge 'dam' held the humongous rising water heroically until  pressure built up so exponentially that it  finally exploded in a violent wall of water descending like a ticking time bomb on the town of Waverly.  Some of the raises railroad bed finally  exploded under the train tracks, letting the wild water through and destroying the tracks above.

Downstream in Waverly, anyone or anything not already on higher ground was doomed for destruction in a matter of minutes as the wall if water raced down the now unimpeded creek.

I'll be back later with a few more thoughts.  Meanwhile,  this town and its people need all the prayers and help it can get.

(Below is  a photo of the raised railroad bed upstream near McEwen  with little Trace Creek on the right beneath the railroad, and the highway to the left.) What could possibly go wrong?