The Flood of 2010

So… We had some rain this weekend. And some more rain. And then more on top of that…

The rain started on Saturday morning… it was definitely a heavy rain, but surely no one expected it to get as bad as it did. Nothing even seemed unusual until around 4 p.m. I had just gotten home from helping my sister at her new apartment, and two things happened. First, my sister called to make sure I had made it home safely, because apparently some of the main roads were starting to flood. Secondly, we turned on the TV to find the weather dudes telling everyone that I-24 near Bell Rd. was pretty much impassible.

And from there it began… around-the-clock weather on the local stations, a constant stream of updates on flooded roads/areas, devastating pictures of homes and cars that were nearly submerged, a mandatory curfew in Franklin, the mayor declaring a state of emergency and urging people to stay home unless it was necessary to venture out… It was just a mess throughout the weekend. And I thought I had heard everything there was to hear by the time I went to bed last night, but I *just* heard that much of downtown - 1st st. through 4th st. to be exact - is flooded as well.

I can’t even begin to express how lucky I feel to be sitting here in my *dry* house. So many people (even some people just BLOCKS away from us - the above photo is from a school four or five blocks from our house) have at least some water damage to their homes, and even some of our friends have been at hotels over the weekend because they can’t even make it to their homes to begin to assess the damage.

Another thing that just kills me to think about is the damage that has been done to the local farms… We are members of a local CSA (and we absolutely love the people and their farm - it’s called Avalon Acres) and I know they’ve lost a ton of chickens and pigs, and I’m sure there’s much more damage to assess once the the land is dry.

Sigh…

And now, on this sunny day, I’m hopeful but also a little scared/nervous, because I know our work hasn’t even begun yet. I have no clue how long it takes for this much water to clear out of an area, but I know it’s not going to be an overnight thing… And I can’t begin to imagine the mess that will be left after the water clears out. I know that if we all do our part, though, we’ll be back to “normal” in no time. Our city is resilient. Our people are resilient. And I know there are tons of outreach organizations to help with clean up… The one I’ve signed up for is Hands On Nashville (http://www.hon.org/HomePage/index.php/home.html). To be honest, I know little about the organization - I just found out about it last night through a friend’s Facebook page. The bottom line is: Any help is good help.

It’s all just surreal… But I know everything will be okay - it’ll just take a little effort from all of us.

Peace.