By admin 
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WZTV) – “Karate Kid” and “Cobra Kai” star Martin Kove had to be evacuated by boat after floodwaters surrounded his home in Tennessee over the weekend.
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Kove is now raising questions about development and future flooding concerns in one of Tennessee’s fastest-growing areas.
What Kove saw outside his home Saturday looked more like one of his movies.
“I just look out the back and there’s a river, like a major river,” Kove said.
Water surrounded Kove’s Franklin home, leaving him, his friend and 12-week-old puppy Winston waiting for help after heavy rain caused Five Mile Creek to rise.
First responders eventually reached them by boat, and Kove said they deserve all the credit.
“What we don’t realize that these people put themselves on the line. They put their lives on the line to save the 12-week-old beast and myself and my lady,” Kove said.
After the water receded, another question remained.
Kove said in his five years in the area, he’s never seen flooding like this and he believes development is something leaders need to consider.
“Where there was a creek, where there was just forest, now is replaced by concrete, now is replaced by foundations, and the water doesn’t have a place to be displaced to,” Kove said.
It’s a concern for other people in this fast-growing area as Franklin moves forward with a long-planned project to finally connect Old Peytonsville Road and Long Lane across Interstate 65.
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The overpass infrastructure has sat for years, but city records now show the project is in the right-of-way acquisition and bidding phase.
The connection would create another east-west route through an area that continues to develop.
“It’s a tough answer. It’s a commerce answer where the city have to meet on it and figure out what’s best when you have a giant project that’s coming in with immense amount of building. Where do we displace the water when the wet season comes?” Kove said.
Meanwhile, just up the Harpeth River, work is already underway to replace the nearly century-old East Main Street bridge.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation said that project will improve water flow through this part of the river and help remove some upstream properties from the floodplain.
Kove said water did not get inside his home, but it damaged fencing and swept outdoor furniture away.
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There is no evidence development caused the flooding.