Nashville is Under Water

I've been gone for a while. I'm sorry about that, though I'm sure you all have other things with which to entertain yourselves. I wanted to take a step away from my usual random thoughts and tell you a little bit about what's going on here in my adopted city.

First let me say this. I love Nashville. It's a beautiful city full of wonderfully kind, generous, open hearted people, even though some of them are the weirdest drivers I have ever encountered in my entire life. This light has been red for too long. I'm just going to go ahead and go. Oops, that car is coming directly towards me. I'll reverse. Still red? Ah, I'm just going anyway. ::facepalm:: That aside, this is a cultural melting pot with some of the most interesting people I've had the pleasure to meet, and it's a musical mecca which is a joy. The city is alive and quirky and awesome.

This past weekend we got more rain than we've ever gotten. Ever. Period. Full stop. Almost 14" fell in the city over about 36 hours, and it was more than that if you were measuring from different locations in the metro area. Because we didn't exactly design our rivers, creeks, etc. all that well, they drain into each other. Flash flood warnings started coming early in the day on Saturday, and when one creek flash flooded, it drained into a body just a bit larger, and the water levels kept going up, until each river in the area (there are multiple rivers in Nashville for my desert homies who are confused by that concept) was about 10-15ft above flood level. And each river, as it drained, emptied itself into the largest river, the Cumberland, which winds through the entire town. The flash floods, the vast amounts of rainfall, the rising water levels....these were a recipe for a disaster the likes of which we have never seen here.

Nor did we really expect to. You don't really have "Nashville" and "grab your galoshes" in the same thought. You don't think of us as potentially waterlogged. But, at least 19 people are dead, and as the waters recede, they are finding more bodies. People died as they sat on the interstate, unable to go anywhere, and unable to escape the fast moving flood. People died as the waters trapped them inside their homes. People died trying to save others. It's heartbreaking, and I don't actually know any of those people.

I have friends whose cars are literally missing. They floated away and can't be found. What do you put on that insurance claim? I have friends who have lost everything. They left their homes with what they could carry, and in most cases with their pets, and they left quickly. Most of the stories I'm hearing at work indicate to me that at one minute, things were fine, the next they looked down and had water rapidly rising around their ankles. How do you even decide what to take with you at that point?

For anyone wondering, I'm perfectly fine. Everyone close to me is fine as well, though some of them are dealing with some pretty severe damage and some still can't get home because the water hasn't gone down yet. We're extraordinarily lucky. I live about 12 blocks from the river (the big one) and it flooded its banks by about 5 blocks...that left me a 7 block cushion and a really good view of the devastation of Nashville's tourist and entertainment industry. The Grand Ole Opry, Opryland Hotel, Opry Mills Mall...under 19 feet of water. For all intents and purposes they are destroyed. The heart and soul of much of Nashville's economy is devastated, and we have no idea how much time and money it will take to come back. According to early estimates, this might be the costliest non-hurricane natural disaster in American history.

Google us. Find out what happened. Because the national news services gave us about 15 minutes and then moved on. I'm not sure why. I have a sneaking suspicion that people who don't live here have no real idea that this city has been hit hard at its heart. But as someone said, we are Nashville. We'll come back. We generally take care of ourselves and each other. You could see it over the last few days when we were without power, down to one water treatment plant, and people could still canoe the streets--there was no looting. None. When the mayor asked us all to cut our water use in half, people actually made a concerted effort to do so, and a lot of probably did so at some cost to personal hygiene. I mentioned this already, but people died to save each other. They threw their belongings out of their boats and off the backs of their jetskis (yes, people were travelling by jetski) in order to make room for their neighbors and their neighbors' pets. This was an absurd few days. But it was a testament to this city.

So Nashville is under water, and we're going to need help. I'm not sure how we're going to get it since no one outside of Nashville really knows what's happening. But spread the word. This is a remarkable place, and we'd love to welcome you with open arms as soon as we can get back on our feet.

If you're outside of Nashville, and you want to help, click here.

If you're in Nashville and you're looking for ways to help this article has some good resources.