I have been so busy since the flood on May 1st that I haven’t blogged about it yet. Here is the account that James wrote for me and then I will add my input:
I woke up Sunday morning and looked out at our back yard. After a few minutes of staring I noticed that I could see the Harpeth River. Under normal situations, and even last year when the Harpeth River flooded a little, we can’t see the river from our backyard. So we went upstairs to look outside and were shocked at what we saw. The Harpeth River looked to be about 75 yards away from our house and getting closer. Over the course of the next two hours the river continued to rise. At this point – neighbors in a section of our subdivision directly behind us started swarming around and frantically moving furniture, cars, etc. Marlie and I got in the car and drove over to the houses behind us. There were about 15 homeowners shoveling sand from new home construction sites into trash bags. They then took the bags to as many houses as they could.
The monsoon type rain never let up for most of the day. At 2:00 pm I asked Sarah to tell me what time it was. I was using the windows of the houses behind ours to track how high the river was rising – and how fast it was rising. After what seemed to be two hours of phone calls, trips down and back our street to survey the rising river, corralling Marlie and listening to her talk non-stop – I went back up to see how high the water had risen on the neighbors windows. When I looked out – I noticed the river had risen a little over 2 feet. I asked Sarah what time it was, expecting to hear 4:00, and she told me it was 2:45. The Harpeth River had risen over 2 feet in our backyard in only 45 minutes! I turned around to tell Sarah and noticed police cars zipping by our house headed down the street. At this point I started to get extremely worried.
I put on a rain jacket and headed outside to see what was going on. I ran into a few of our friends/neighbors and we spoke with the police. They started mandatory evacuations on about 30 houses. They told us that as the water continued to rise – our houses would be next to be evacuated. We marked the current spot of the water on the street so we could track the water level. Me and a few guys on our street came up with a plan on how to get furniture and other valuables upstairs on a few houses around us should the water keep rising.
At around 4:00 the rain stopped. Everyone in the neighborhood came outside. We figured that the river would continue to rise. Luckily – the river remained at its current height. My neighbor and I walked the entire neighborhood to survey everything. At this point we had been without power for over 7 hours. After dinner, we went down to the water a few houses down and saw that it was receding. We were so thankful. The water came within 4 houses of ours.
http://picasaweb.google.com/penelopepinky/NashvilleFloodOf2010#
The link above has pictures that James took during the flood and several days after. Thankfully, we made it without getting any water in our house. So many of our neighbors weren’t so lucky. Over 150 of the 600 homes had water damage and only a few of those homeowners had flood insurance. Our friends, the Patterson’s, had over 8 feet of water in their home. At the time of the flood they had an almost 2 year old and a 2 week old!! They got out of their home before the floodwaters came in but they lost everything on the 1st floor of their home. They lost all their children’s books, toys, baby books, pictures, etc. I have started collecting monetary donations, gift cards, books, toys, etc. If anyone wants to donate please contact me. Here’s a link to their home:
http://picasaweb.google.com/penelopepinky/ThePattersonSHome#
It’s been truly amazing to see all of Nashville come together and help those in need! Instead of sitting around and waiting for help and looting we have all been helping each other. Many restaurants, churches, and individuals delivered full meals to those in need for weeks. I am so proud to say that I live in Nashville!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA5nlzUKaQU&feature=player_embedded
This link is of the damage in our neighborhood.
Please continue to pray for all who lost so much during this terrible flood!!
We Are Nashville
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