Thoughts On The Flood

21 (Over 30 if you include the total affected area) people are dead and early damage estimates are 1.5 billion (That number will go up significantly). It's being called the most costly non-hurricane natural disaster in American History (Nashville itself hasn't incurred damage like this since the civil war). That's all I can think about when I ponder it. Natural disaster. I have been through bomb scares and shootings and tornadoes and even floods before, but all I can think of now was that I was at ground zero of an actual natural disaster. I managed to make it around town quite a bit during the worst of it and the days after. I was in Bellevue when River Plantation went under. I was downtown when they evacuated the South End of 2nd Ave. I was at metrocenter when we sandbagged it up. My phone went under as I swam through River Plantation trying to get to people and when I got home I had no power for a few days so it took me awhile to realize that nobody knew about us. We needed help and almost nobody knew about us. The only ones that did heard about us after the reporting of a failed car bombing in Times Square and the oil leak. Half the state has applied for disaster relief and we were barely a blip on the radar of the National News Media. People were not being told about our plight so they were unable to assist. It wasn't even reported in Memphis until days later, and it's practically down the street from us.

Why? Probably because of who we are. The Volunteer State. When shit hit the fan people went out and helped each other. There was no looting, even amongst the incarcerated. How do I know that? Because they were next to me sandbagging, helping to hold the water back. Family, friends, neighbors, prisoners, everyone doing what they could to help out the people in need. A lot of donations had to be turned away because there were more than the shelters could store.

Shit's bad. Jobs have been lost, homes have been lost, lives have been lost. We have been knocked down. But we will not stay down. We will rise up, rebuild, and entertain the world again. Nashville will never die as long as we still breathe, because we are Nashville.

Until next time, True Believers...
The well is empty
And the bottle is dry
May 2010

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