NASHVILLE IS UNDERWATER

[defrog]

I guess I should say something about my hometown, which is basically under water at the moment.



The good news is that everyone I know is okay and had the fortune of living on the right side of Old Hickory Dam. But obviously, others haven’t been nearly so lucky.

I’m assuming this is getting a lot of coverage in the states. I’m not sure how much. On the one hand, it’s a major flood with double-digit casualties in a major metropolitan area. On the other hand, it’s Nashville.

Still, CNN ran the floating schoolhouse on I-24. So I guess that’s something.

I admit, I don’t really know what to say about it myself. I guess the striking thing – apart from the surreal feeling that comes from seeing the streets of downtown filled with the Cumberland – is how so many people got caught in the flood waters because they waited until it was too late.

Because, see, I can completely understand why – natural disasters just don’t happen in Nashville, apart from the random tornado. And being located in a basin next to a river, we’ve seen flash floods before – but they’re usually minor.

So if I still lived there, I’d have shrugged it off too, and depending on where I lived, I’d probably be on the roof now trying to hitch a ride on a Jet Ski.

Anyway, this is easily the worst thing to hit Nashville in my lifetime (i.e. 44.5 years). Which just goes to show: all the bad stuff on the news doesn’t always happen Somewhere Else. So pay attention.

When the levee breaks,

This is dF

Comments

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

Looks quite severe. I guess it's been overshadowed by the oil spill.

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

I've heard that, actually – between the oil spill and the Times Square bomb plot, Tennessee flooding doesn't rate so high.

[bedsitter23.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched much news admittedly, but it is a distant third to the other two stories.

Also, having lived through the Des Moines floods, it's probably not as bad as they make it.

Still, hope all your friends and family are well.

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how bad they ARE making it, but some friends of mine think it's being underplayed (though for all I know their standards have been set by the usual media circuses you get with any major disaster or celebrity divorce). Certainly by Nashville standards it's pretty major, and with shelters reportedly at over-capacity, a water shortage in effect and a few dozen people unaccounted for, it's pretty serious. And for a city that makes a lot of its money from tourism, the economic impact is expected to be substantial.

[ziyda.livejournal.com]

The news coverage is not portraying this properly.