Godspeed, Nashville

I’m back in Nashville now.  And so is the sun.

It’s 30+ degrees … It kinda leaves me wondering how a flood could ever hit, but I know that I don’t understand the first thing about weather.  Also, when I was out yesterday, I stumbled on a section of town that had been affected, and it all became real to me.  Not photos this time.  Like, real-life.

The water was gone, but there was dirt everywhere.  A couple cars were strewn across the roads, covered in dirt … Obviously previously completely or mostly submerged.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that car won’t be driving anywhere anymore.  That simple thought really opened my eyes.

I get upset if one of my $15 DVDs get scratched and is reduced to garbage.  I couldn’t imagine if my VAN was suddenly reduced to a pile of garbage.  Let alone a house.

Or a thriving business: Country Stars Are Reeling After Nashville Flooding.

“Losses in the tens of … *ahem* MILLIONS … dollars?”  What happened to “A little rain never hurt anybody?”  And flood insurance … Before this, I would have laughed at the notion of flood insurance.  Facepalm, indeed.

Here’s something I didn’t know that my bandmate George told me:  Apparently when a flood happens, the water isn’t just water.  There’s an immense amount of crap in it (sometimes literally) that makes it pretty destructive to … anything.  So it’s not like somebody just left a gigantic tap running resulting in a mess that a million hair dryers could fix.  This is legit damage which requires affected materials to be removed, destroyed and completely rebuilt.

I heard the Grand Ol’ Opry won’t be fully repaired until at least December.

Before coming down to Nashville this time, my friend @ChrisFromCanada, having heard that Nashville’s #1 need was bottled water, made some phone calls and filled my van with 50 cases of water.  Every wondered what 50 cases of water looks like in one place?  The photo’s tiny, but you get the point:

The flood has led to a water restriction in Nashville, and I think that’s the reason they need bottled water so bad.  I went to Wal-Mart yesterday to pick up some groceries and there was more bottled water than I’d ever seen in my life.  It was EVERYWHERE.

It made me feel like the water Orangeville, ON sent wasn’t really needed – but then I remembered that the water Orangeville, ON sent was also FREE water.  And to people whose homes/cars/workplaces have been nullified, FREE water is like manna from Heaven.

So … Well done, Orangeville, ON – for responding to a need before much of the world knew it had even happened.

And Godspeed, Nashville and your people.  I know I’m not the only one waiting for new country song … “(Lost My Truck) Bought a Boat”.  (Too soon?  … too soon.)

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francy