May 2nd, 3rd and 4th Middle, Southern and Western Tennessee suffered catastrophic floods which Weather Service forecasters are calling the 1000 year flood. Nashville and surrounding towns and rural areas were the hardest hit as the Cumberland River rose to cover homes, businesses, farms and historic sites in heart breaking loss and damage. Water covered interstates 24, 65 and 40, plus streets and backroads in places near rivers and covered cars and stranded semi-trucks and travelers that called for dramatic, and heroic rescues, but also swept away some that were not reachable. Homes were destroyed, along with all belongings, of thousands of Tenneseans who had never before needed Flood Insurance, so therefore didn’t have any protection as they watched their entire households covered in flash flooding.
Flash flooding is different from
other kind of flooding, where you have warnings and can get some of your
belongings to higher ground as the water raised over hours or days. I sit on my front porch of the old farm house
on Saturday, May 1st, having my cup of coffee about 6AM, in Sumner
County, Tennessee, when the rain started.
I started as if you would turn on a faucet in your home full force, and
I sit there waiting for it to let up…..and it didn’t. I watched our little Deshea Creek, which in
normal times is about 8 inches deep, quickly become a raging river and sweep
out of it’s banks and start covering our fields and yards, with big logs taking
down the fences and the mailbox down by the road completely covered by the brown
water. Two branches of the creek come
together at the corner of our property and our old farm house become an island
in the swiftly moving water. What had
been our driveway up to the old house was completely washed out and become a
trench about 2 foot deep. Fortunately I
had moved the horses up to the upper pasture by the barn on Friday before the
rain started or they would have been washed away in the lower pasture which had
water 12 foot deep over almost all of it.
And the rain keep falling….Saturday, Saturday night, and then it really
kicked in high gear on Sunday. We were
isolated in our home and couldn’t get out to get to Church, but it didn’t
matter cause Church was cancelled anyway.
Gallatin was flooded, Hendersonville was flooded, Lebanon had water 6
foot deep covering the city square and all the businesses, Franklin was
flooded, Dickson was flooded, Waverly was hard hit, Clarksville and
Murfreesboro had flooding…..and then you had Nashville. The Corps of Engineers, who controls the dams
on the Cumberland River, could no longer hold back the water as the surge
hit. Downtown Nashville and surrounding
suburbs were swamped where water had never been before. Rich and poor, big houses and small, old
historic buildings which had stood for 150 years, small businesses, Tourist
attractions….it didn’t matter to the water, it was an equal opportunity
flood. Water was 12 ft deep in the lobby
of the Opryland Hotel, water covered the stage of the Opry House, Jeannie
Seely’s house, on the banks of the Cumberland was covered, a storage facility
where superstars stored their touring instruments and staging equipment was
covered, with the loss of priceless instruments of historical significance and
wardrobes such as Lorrie Morgan’s ruined.
It got the Country Music Hall Of Fame, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the
Water Treatment Plant and Electric Power Stations, causing water shortage and
Power loss across the city of Nashville.
Boats were traveling up West End Avenue rescuing folks, entire housing
developments were under water, Bellevue, on the South West corner of Nashville
was isolated for days with water covering homes and roads. Folks lost everything. It was a disaster of unimaginable
proportions.
And yet, you probably didn’t hear much about it on National news outlets. That is because you didn’t hear many folks in Tennessee hollering or complaining, or hordes of gangs breaking and entering to loot, people screaming for the Government
to come give ‘em a handout or blaming some Politician for not coming and seeing about them, so therefore there interest to No, what you heard on site was neighbors helping neighbors, local news teams braving flood waters to give the stories at the risk of their lives and preempting paid advertising time to do fund raising for the folks that needed it, Red Cross and other community groups out in force to help. You saw Churches turning out their Sunday Services to come out, enforce, to pitch in and do the dirty work of cleaning up and helping out. Musicians giving their time and money to raise awareness, since the National Media just didn’t seem to give a dang, and the strong will of the Volunteer State folks was just incredible to witness and give great meaning to “It’s great to be alive and living in Tennessee!”
The cleanup goes on and will be a long time effort. Our prayers and love go out to all the folks in our home-towns, farms and communities that have suffered such loss. The friends and neighbors of this area are what make America strong and will help our Country survive all the turmoil, danger and threats that we face everyday. God Bless Tennessee and God Bless America.
Stan Hitchcock