Posted on 05/05/2010 6:10:37 AM PDT by Fighting Irish
Allow me a moment to step away from the usual voice of this website.
What I am about to write has absolutely nothing to do with hockey.
If you live outside of Nashville, you may not be aware, but our city was hit by a 500-year flood over the last few days. The national news coverage gave us 15 minutes, but went back to focusing on a failed car bomb and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While both are clearly important stories, was that any reason to ignore our story? It may not be as terror-sexy as a failed car bomb or as eco-sexy as an oil spill, but that’s no reason to be ignored.
The Cumberland River crested at its highest level in over 80 years. Nashville had its highest rainfall totals since records began. People drowned. Billions of dollars in damage occurred. It is the single largest disaster to hit Middle Tennessee since the Civil War. And yet…no one knows about it.
Does it really matter? Eventually, it will…as I mentioned, there are billions of dollars in damage. It seems bizarre that no one seems to be aware that we just experienced what is quite possibly the costliest non-hurricane disaster in American history. The funds to rebuild will have to come from somewhere, which is why people need to know. It’s hard to believe that we will receive much relief if there isn’t a perception that we need it.
But let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment. A large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are. Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own.
Some will be quick to find fault in the way rescue operations were handled, but the fact of the matter is that the catastrophe could not have been prevented and it is simply ignorant beyond all reason to suggest otherwise. It is a flood. It was caused by rain. You can try to find a face to stick this tragedy to, but you’ll be wrong.
Parts of Nashville that could never even conceivably be underwater were underwater. Some of them still are. Opry Mills and the Opryland Hotel are, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. People died sitting in standstill traffic on the Interstate. We saw boats going down West End. And, of course, we all saw the surreal image of the portable building from Lighthouse Christian floating into traffic and being destroyed when cars were knocked into it. I’m still having trouble comprehending all of it.
And yet…life will go on. We’ll go back to work, to school, to our lives…and we’ll carry on. In a little over a month, I’ll be on this website talking about the draft. In October, we’ll be discussing the new Predators’ season with nary a thought of these past few days. But in a way, they changed everyone in this town. We now know that that it can happen to us…but also know that we can handle it.
Because we are Nashville
Some cultures pull together, weather the storm and come out the other end stronger, better and more cohesive - others take advantage of the situation to parasite off others for the next several years.
How much you want to bet that there will NOT be a box to check on the income tax forms asking if you were a survivor of the Memphis flood?
Today was my first day back to Downtown Nashville. I’m amazed how much of it is back to business as usual.
Nashville, a nice American city in the heartland. May God be with them through this tragedy.
I must admit, I didn’t realize the devastation was so bad in Nashville. Prayers for everyone in TN affected by this flood.
Why isn’t the national media covering this? I see more coverage of Greece than this. Other than the building floating down the street, I have seen very little about this flood.
Nashville is a city I’ve seriously considered moving to. They have pretty much everything I look for—awesome music, a hockey team, great motorcycle roads near-by and no income tax.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought the Cumberland River could rise high enough to do the damage it’s doing right now. Having seen the pics in the Tennesseean showing the Opryland Hotel, Opry MIlls Mall, LP Field, the Grand Ole Opry House, and downtown ALL under xx feet of water is sobering. Next month, Nashville plays host to what was known as Fanfare, a four day country music festival. LP Field is where the main nightly concerts are held. It may not be ready for the show. There is/was some beautiful wood in Opy Mills Mall. It’s probably ruined by now. The hotel is a beuatiful place just to walk around in. It will be redone. Once all those place dry out, the mold problem will be off-scale high. Those with mold allegies should avoid those places for a while.
All the people that lost most to all of their possesions in the flooding have my undying sympathy. It looks like they got hit far harder than people in Memphis did. Still it’s a dam#ed shame. I do feel badly for all those affected by the storms of this past weekend. They will recover. It’ll take time to do that.
I love Nashville and we will get over this flood and come out knowing how strong and compassionate we are.
Thank you to all who are helping or can help!!
Here are a couple of places to visit if you want to give: www.hon.org (Hands on Nashville) and of course the red cross or salvation army
I’ve been a bit pissed at the arrogance of continually calling Times Square “The Crossroads of the World”....maybe it’s some sort of unofficial slogan, but it shows that these Noo Yahkas need to get out more....
I just heard also that all of the Opry archives have been ruined in the flood. Sad day for music!
This morning I saw images from nashville and cried my eyes out. You are wrong to think we don’t know and even more wrong to think we don’t care. I saw the devastation and watched peoples’ entire lives being washed away. And I saw the Grand Old Oprey under water.
I am crying as I type this. Because what we see is TRULY the heart of America and I grieve with you.
But you are right in the most important way of all. BECAUSE you are the heart of America, you don’t need our pity. We offer our prayers. We will do everything in our power to help because that is what the REAL America is all about.
You are not alone. That is the truth.
You just brought tears to my eyes! Thank you!
Yes, even the floors at the Opry Mills Mall was gorgeous. Loved to take the kids up there to eat at the Rainforest Cafe when they were a little younger. We’ve stayed twice athe the Opryland Hotel and loved it too. So sad.
A twelve block section of downtown Nashville, including the ATT building, will have no power until this weekend at the earliest. The underground power system failed, and crews have to wait until the waters recede to begin work. That means those of us who work in that area cannot even get to our offices this week.
The old Ryman is safe, and artifacts at the Country Music Hall of Fame escaped damage. However, both ventures of our professional teams (LP Field for the Tennessee Titans and Bridgestone Area for the NHL Predators) took on water. Our beautiful new symphony hall (yes, we make music other than just country) had ten feet of water in its basement and lost its organ and two grand pianos.
Most heartbreaking were the people who died. One couple were on their way to church on Sunday morning and were washed away.
Thanks to our Democrat Governor, who is actually a rather conservative guy, we did get a federal declaration from Obama. Our GOP Senators, Corker and Alexander, toured the streets yesterday and were very supported of the efforts of the governor and Mayor Dean of Nashville (also a Dem but a very good mayor.) Here in Tennessee we put our differences aside and work together.
We don’t need a photo opt from the Won, but we have a lot of people who have lost a lot, and our communities are going to have to reevaluate those flood maps and determine where we develop in the future. Your prayers are coveted.
My daughter just got back from a horse show in Franklin TN. They got the call at 2:00 am on Saturday morning that the water was waist deep at the horse show and the hundreds of horses there were in danger of drowning (especially the small ponies). Only the really big trucks could get in due to the water. People got out of their beds and ferried the horses to safety at the Ag Research Facility. The water ended up getting to the top of the stall doors before receding. What great work! A big thank you to Tennesee folks who did this!
Millington in Shelby Co was hit as hard. Southside of Navy base was under water when the Big Creek Levy broke. 300+ residents of the Shady Oaks trailer court lost their homes. 7 feet of water inside the trailers, which are now junk. That’s only 1 trailer court.
*weeps for Nashville* :(
We went down to Opry Mills to visit my favorite store,Bass Pro Shop Fri..water up to the ceiling now.Briley Pkw still closed.
The amt. of water going through Old Hickory Dam in Hendersonville is unbelievable.Viet Nam Pky is still closed in East bound side this AM.
Its just heart-breaking hearing the stories of people with nothing but the clothes on their back,lost everything
Gotta love Tennesseans - it's the "Volunteer State", and shows us this wonderful spirit whenever trouble hits.
We were in Jackson from Thursday through Saturday morning. The emergency bulletins on the NOAA radio were coming fast and furious during the wee hours of Saturday morning. We were lucky to get out at 7:30 am, heading toward St. Louis. Had we waited another hour, I'm not sure we'd have found a passable road. I've never seen anything like it in my life, and that's without having the Cumberland River to deal with.
We stopped in Nashville for lunch on Thursday, on our way west to Jackson. It's heartbreaking to see what has happened to Nashville, but the good people of Tennessee will pull together and make it right.
Looter man, to get to Nashville, head west from New Orleans. Just keep going.
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