Like Lightning

Wow! Where did April go??? It seriously only felt like it was one week long. Wow!

I don't know what we did all month, maybe because the month disappeared.

Sam got his cast off. His arm is doing good. Much better than his ankle. In fact, his ankle still hurts him quite often.

The end of school is almost here, you can tell by how busy we have gotten. may is always so out of control. Craziness!

The biggest news around here is... Nashville is a flooded, drowned mess.

Saturday, the 1st, it poured rain. All day long. Lots and lots of rain. Hours later, more and more and more rain. Lindsay tried to leave our neighborhood, only to find the road outside of it flooded. She turned around and went right back home. If you know us at all, you know that we aren't scared of weather and we do what we need to do. For her to go back home was a big deal. It continued pouring rain. Our little town was overrun with water. Flooding was happening all over. We turned on teh news. As we we were watching we saw cars on the major interstate that runs right behind our house completely submerged in water. Cars were just floating around. One whole side was completely covered up to the median. In fact, the water was pouring over the median o n to the other side. People kept trying to drive through. Crazy. Then, on live tv, we watched a building float right down the middle of the interstate! A building!! As we watched, it got pushed up against some of the floating cars. Within seconds it started collapsing in on itself, the roof ripped of, and the whole building dissolved and disappeared in to the water. It was amazing. It was scary. I don't think i will forget that for a long, long time. We started worrying about what was going to happen. Thankfully, we are on a bit of a hill so we were pretty safe, but it was supposed to keep raining the whole next day as well. We already couldn't get out of our subdivision. Where was all that water going to go???

We watched the news all night. I hate the news. I never watch it. This day, this terrible wet day, I watched. Til midnight. I watched all the stories of water pouring over roads and into houses. People who were told to stay home, were suddenly trapped with water surrounding all sides. Terrible.

Finally, we went to bed, hoping to wake up and the weather predictions would be wrong like always.

Sunday, church was canceled. We woke up to no rain. It looked like rain any minute, but it wasn't actively raining. Whew! I then turned on the news. We were tricked. It wasn't raining at our house, but it was raining all around us. Things were looking worse and worse. Homes were being evacuated. People were stuck in rising water. Every interstate in the area had parts of it that were closed because they were covered in water. People were stuck on the freeway with a flood behind them and a flood ahead. They had been stuck all night, with no way to get to them. Rivers were rising quickly and no end was in sight. Then the rain started at our house again.

It rained and rained and rained. The stories kept getting worse. All the stations were covering the downpour. People were having to drive in boats to rescue people. Boats in places that should have been dry land. It didn't seem too bad here, and we were all stir crazy so we went for a drive. The roads were pretty clear, except for here and there. We watched one car drive through a big puddle of standing water in one lane of the road and kill there car. AJ got out in the pouring rain to help them push the car. After that, things got worse quickly. Suddenly a place that we had just driven through had water rushing across the road. Police were rushing everywhere, trying to block off roadways. We almost didn't get across one section of the road leading to our neighborhood. The water was over the bridges alongside us. Water was up to people's doorways. I took pictures. They are on facebook if you want to look. My pictures don't even come close to the devastation that happened just miles down the road.

We got home and continued to watch the news. Continued to watch as whole subdivisions were flooded, trapping people inside. Watched as the water inched closer and closer to the cars who had been sitting for hours and hours on the closed section of interstate. Watched as the death toll went up.

Finally, the end was in sight. They told us the rain would stop. We went to bed.

School was canceled the next day. We woke up to bright sunshine, with not a cloud in the sky. Everything seemed normal. The road in our cul de sac was almost dry. Then I turned on the news.

The Cumberland river that runs through Nashville was beyond flood capacity. It had flooded dramatically. Downtown was underwater. Opryland hotel was under water. The Titans stadium was under water. Streets that our main tourist spots were under water. The river was still rising.

We still had not received help from the government. No one but our citizens were helping. In fact, we barely made the national news. Nothing. But we watched as volunteers, regular people that lived right here, brought out their boats and started rescuing people. Hotels full of people were evacuated 4 at a time. Pregnant ladies in labor were airlifted from their rooftops. Countless homes were lost, either swept away or completely under water. The aerial views of the area were astonishing. Whole sections of cities were under water to the rooftops. The water continued to rise. Barricades kept moving up and up and up as the water inched its way through the streets.

Flooding in Nashville. Who would have thought. Yes, we have rivers everywhere. We also had flood plans in place. Flooding might occur, but never even close to this capacity. Decades have passed since seeing a flood even close to this magnitude. Sadness. Most of these people didn't even have flood insurance. In fact, they couldn't even get it because they weren't in a flood plain. They lost EVERYTHING and have NO WAY to replace it. Many are even out of jobs because the business they worked at is now under water. They have nothing. Nothing. No one could plan for this. No one could forsee this. Sadness.


Finally, a few of our counties will receive assistance from the government. A few. Almost every county in the middle Tennessee area were affected by this, and only a few were deemed bad enough to warrant government aid. Opryland alone, has over $75000 in damage. I can only imagine the other historic landmarks that are ruined forever. Many businesses won't even be able to open for months. MONTHS. We, thankfully, did not get hit as hard the 2nd day, and our baseball fields are still completely under water up to the rooftop of the consession stands. Yes, that isn't as important as Vanderbilt Hospital who's first floor flooded, or the news station that still can't broadcast in their building, but when does or community get to fix all that went wrong and with what? As of yesterday, 15 roads were still closed in our county. Parts of the road we travel down everyday have chunks missing. I haven't even seen the hardest hit areas of our city.

We finally went back to school today. Most counties still are not able to have school because the roads to get to them are under water.

I feel so sad. I am awestruck by the severity of this, that happened right in front of me, right in the place I live. I am thankful that we Tennesseans did not just sit by and wait for help from the outside. We jumped in, drove our own boats, carried out unbelievable rescues, waded through stinky, contaminated water, all to help our fellow citizens. We didn't wait, we took action. I am proud of this place we call home.

What we can't do is provide the financial assistance needed to help all of the people affected. What we can't do is give back the lives that were lost. many lost so much themselves and are still giving in any way we can. Thankfully, we were personally affected, and actually aren't particularly close to any of them that were (at least that we know of), but whether you know someone devastated by this or not, do what you can to help out. Take food to a shelter. Help someone tear up their stinky, wet carpet. Send money. Whether you are in this area or not, help is needed. These lives need to be rebuilt. Find a way to give.

I will even help you by giving you a way to make a donation so that it helps right here in the Middle Tennessee Area.

Flood Relief- The Tennessee Emergency Response Flood

To mail a donation by check, send to:
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
PO Box 440225
Nashville, TN 37244


Help, however you can. It's important.