Blame it on the Rain

My Pepa called this morning from Memphis, and his first words were, "Are y'all getting any rain in Nashville?" Obviously, Pepa (who knows everything about everything) knew how bad the conditions are, but I appreciated his lighthearted way of approaching the subject.

In fact, we (Kyle, Devin - who came up yesterday to watch the Derby, taking 3 hours to get here from Franklin, and has now essentially decided to move in - and I) drove to the Mapco this morning to get a newspaper, and there were three kids on the side of the road, just begging for cars to speed through a giant puddle and spray them. Of course, we obliged!

At this point, all we can do is be more like those boys and try to make the best of this terrible situation. Our hearts and prayers go out to those who have been affected far worse than we have - both here in Middle Tennessee and back home in West Tennessee, and the reports on the news are just unbelievable. And the worst part is that until the rain stops, there's nothing anyone can do - to clean up the mess, see what can be saved or even know the extent of their home's damage.

The latest reports have said that more than 13 inches of rain have fallen on the Nashville area over the past two days, nearly doubling the previous record of 7 inches. Unreal.

I've watched this video five times, and it's still unbelievable to me. The concrete barrier on Interstate 24 near Antioch essentially became a levee. If you haven't seen the video of the mobile classroom yet, it's a must watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHuMn1AVRDg 

A little closer to home, we've seen much devastation in our sweet little neighborhood, known as the Crieve Hall community. Under normal circumstances, Crieve Hall has these gentle creeks that run throughout the neighborhood and through many people's yards. Yesterday and today, though, those gentle creeks have become raging rivers. One of those creeks runs just across the street from us, so we've had a front-row view of watching it take over the street.

 the view from our living room

This is shot while standing in the road. Directly in front is where the creek runs through our neighbors yard. The water was so deep at different times Saturday and Sunday that we saw big chunks of firewood floating and at one point, there was a large City of Nashville garbage can.

The water from the creek is flowing across the road, directly across from our house.

  Remember the mailbox from the previous photo? This is our neighbor's house. Fortunately (and quite unbelievably), they didn't get any water in the house but it was close. This was shot at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, and as I write this (4 p.m. Sunday afternoon), the water has receded quite a bit.
This is at its worst. 

Immediately after taking this picture, I turned and shot a photo of our house, just across the street. We are so fortunate.

We did get some water in our basement, which is always a concern when you have a basement – and a sloping backyard. Fortunately, previous owners have done a lot of work to our house, by installing a French drain in the backyard, putting in dry systems in the basement and using a sump pump. But no level of preparation can prevent a basement from getting at least a little water when you've experienced 10-12 inches in 48 hours.

We have about an inch or so of water in the basement, but we were able to pick everything up before it got deep, so we are fine. And in fact, Kyle and Devin spent the afternoon pushing the water out the basement door and cleaning a lot of it up with our ShopVac. So we'll be fine - just lots of dry time needed.

With the exception of the 15 minutes we flipped over yesterday to watch the Kentucky Derby, our TV has been on nothing but Channel 5 news coverage. And as I'm typing this, they just showed video of a house that was knocked off its foundation by water. Unbelievable.

And I'm sure it's just one of many many examples we'll soon all learn about. My hope is that, in the coming days, we can all band together to help those who have truly been affected – through prayer and donations of time, service, needed items and financial support.

Our friend Erin Hornsby just posted this to her Facebook profile, and I think it appropriate to share here, too:  
In partnership with Davidson County's Office of Emergency Management,The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has activated its Metro Nashville Disaster Response Fund to help to those affected by the floods. We have also activated Tennessee Emergency Response Fund to support relief beyond Davidson County. Donate to either fund at www.cfmt.org. Please help spread the word. 

In this spirit of "laughing to keep from crying" about this terrible situation our area is experiencing, I'll close with this photo. If you know Kyle, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he felt it important to float a duck decoy in our basement: