Clean up efforts continue in Nashville after record rainfall destroyed homes and created an estimated billion dollars in damage.Many residents are now waiting on word from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to find out what aid they’ll receive. USA Today interviewed some of the homeowners living in the worst-hit areas near the Harpeth River.

Twenty-seven-year-old Tiffany Wiggers says she doesn’t have flood insurance and, in fact, she paid $15,000 extra to be closer to the river. “Everybody on this side of the street, we paid lot premiums to be near the river: $15,000. You have to laugh to keep from crying,” Wiggers told USA Today. She says she and her  husband questioned the real estate agent, builder, lender and an insurance agent about flood insurance, but all said it wasn’t necessary. “They all said, ‘You’re not in a flood plain, so you don’t need it,’ ” recalled Wiggers for USA Today, who was taken from her home via rescue boat. “I was like, ‘FEMA and the bank said we won’t need it, so we’re in the clear.’ ”

In this area the Harpeth River, usually a gentle stream, rose to 27.3 feet. That’s three feet higher than the record which was set in 1948. Tennessee’s governor Phil Bredesen told CNN that many people don’t have flood insurance. “A lot of people who didn’t have flood insurance, because they never thought floodwaters would ever come anywhere near their home, are really looking at a total loss of their home,” Bredesen said to CNN. “It’s very tough on a lot of people right now.” President Obama has declared ten Tennessee counties disaster areas. Thankfully the forecast for this area is dry.