Nashville Flooding - Donate

[BinaryLinguist]

Guys and Gals,

Not sure how much you've seen on the news lately, but the Nashville, TN area has been devastated by flooding. I have family in the area (Franklin) which have been mostly undamaged, but the majority of the area has not been that lucky. Estimates have been > $1 Billion of damage. We're quick to help out other countries in need so let's do the same for our fellow Americans. If you wish to donate or see some of the damage, please take a look at these links and give what you can:

Show Your Support

Nashville Flood Tees - Proceeds to Victims

Pictures of Damage

You can also text 'REDCROSS' to 90999 to donate $10 to disaster relief.

Thanks

[gonk]

It was a very devastating storm. Nashville is the hardest hit - and has gotten surprisingly spotty national news coverage, it seems. Memphis didn't fare too badly (although we got a lot of rain and some flooding along with lots of tornado warnings that brought the sirens on) but Millington and Dyersburg are hard hit.

[Sevenfeet]

BinaryLinguist, thanks for checking in on me. I live in West Nashville (Bellevue) which was one of the hardest hit areas. My house and family are ok but I know friends who weren't so lucky and lost nearly everything. I can easily walk to streets where row upon row of homes are total losses. If any of you can, please donate to the American Red Cross. It's going to be a long time before Nashville gets over this.

[Ajax]

Got your PM, Rick. Sorry to hear how Nashville has suffered, but glad to hear you were spared the worst of it. :clapper:

[Sevenfeet]

Flooding is an interesting phenomenon and this part of the country is actually used to it. But we're not used to the kind of flooding we saw this week. That's the kind of stuff you see on TV in Iowa or S. Dakota every few years. Nashville has largely escaped this kind of flooding every since the levees and dams were built to control the Cumberland River in the 1950s and 60s. 1975 was the last time we came close to this kind of damage when the Cumberland crested at 50 feet...which is the height of all the levees. This week we hit 51.66 ft and the results were what you all saw on TV. That flooded downtown Nashville, including all the tourist bars on lower Broadway, the Country Music Hall of Fame (brand new), the Schermerhorn Symphony Center (brand new, 8 feet of water in the basement), the Titans Stadium and many other places. The crown jewel of tourism, the Opryland Hotel and Convention Center (room for 5000 guests) had 12 feet of water on the main level (and there is a basement beneath it). It will be six months before it opens again.

But away from the Cumberland, the major tributaries all got into the act. The Harpeth River runs through my neighborhood and normally it's just a small body of water that's anywhere from 6-10 feet deep...sometimes a lot less. It floods at 16 feet and it gets bad at 20 feet. All of the homes and flood plains are designed for that. This week the Harpeth crested at 42 feet...enough to swamp bridges that crossed it. To give you an example of how bad that is, country star Kenny Chesney has a 40 acre property on the Harpeth with his primary house sitting on flood plain. It's on high stilts since the Harpeth floods every now and then. The water line was to the roof of his two story structure. His house is now condemned and will be torn down like so many other homes.

But the true heartbreak is close to home, literally. Just a two minute drive from my house, one of my longtime friends who has two special needs sons lost everything on the ground floor of his home, and both his cars. His wife, looking for some humor noted that her husband's car was flooded and damaged by a search and rescue boat (!). They are putting their lives back together day by day.

[gonk]

Glad to hear that you and your family made it through the storm and flooding intact, sevenfeet.

[tesseract]

Anyone heard from Tenn Ham? I believe he said he is in Nashville. I'm gonna drop him a PM.