I don’t mean to bore those of you who are following this locally. I also don’t want to not update those of you who aren’t local. So, here’s a short update. We woke up this morning to learn that parts of downtown are under water. If you’re a student of history, you be completely unsurprised to learn that it’s “Black Bottom” that has flooded–those old ghosts stick around, you know?
I-40 going out towards Memphis is closed. Much of Bellevue, which is our western neighborhood/suburb, is under water. Pennington Bend, which is the bend in the river where the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland Hotel is located is underwater in parts. Briley Parkway, which is a major loop around the city is flooded in two parts.
I don’t know. It’s hard to get you a sense of the magnitude of it. And I haven’t even started to tell you about the surrounding areas. Basically, if you look at a map of Middle Tennessee, you should just imagine all of the low areas under water.
We’re very lucky that, though we’re in a low area of our little clump of houses, we are actually higher up than most of the city. That’s why our yard emptied out pretty quickly, even though it was still raining. Our good fortune was the bad fortune of someone else.
I’m going to try to get into work here in a second. The mayor has asked people to stay home, but the word from work is that folks are expected to be there. And the mayor doesn’t sign my paycheck, so there you go.
Please keep us in your thoughts.
The Wolf Creek Dam flood maps that the Army Corps put out a few years ago are apparently relatively accurate, gauging from what I heard on the radio last night where folks were being rescued, for those looking to see how the Cumberland flooded. Doesn’t account for the Harpeth or any tributaries.
http://yearg.in/wolfcreekfloodmaps
B, please keep us apprised on how it is trying to cross the river – anarchival was evacuated from Bellevue/River Plantation and I’ve collected clothes for her from East Nashvillians but I don’t know how to get them to her.
Take care, B.
I appreciate your posting more than you know and so many others as well. I keep trying to picture in my head what some of these places look like right now and it’s just unfathomable to me, though the slideshow and Flickr collections people are posting of Downtown on Twitter this morning give me a pretty good idea. I knew it was going to be bad this morning but it’s lots worse than I expected.
Also trying to suss out sister’s situation – her plane back to Lincoln was supposed to leave BNA today so they were supposed to go back to Nashville, but I think they have decided to wait at least one more day. As we’re hearing Clarksville may now be dicey, I’d told my mom I guess if one really had to they could go to Murray KY and over to 65 that way and drop down, but given all the water on Briley Parkway and out around Opryland I just don’t think it’s worth worrying with today. Better off waiting until tomorrow.
And I’m really sorry to hear you had to go into work today, and others. I read a little while ago that FW was trying to get to a funeral and had only been able to go 3 miles in 45 minutes. Everyone all over should have just told their people stay home today and wait until tomorrow as far as work goes, IMO.
I can’t believe they expect you, unless your work provides essential services for the area.
Meanwhile, seeing news and blog updates on flooding in my newsfeed.
Just talked to a friend of mine who lives out in the country near McEwen and he said they have one road in and out of his place and it’s flooded. He can get out if he has to, but it’s not easy. He has a flat-bottomed boat and told his mom that if they had to evacuate, they could go down the creek in that and tie her big tupperware containers to the back of the boat for the dog and the cats (he said most people go inner tubing on the creek, he was gonna go tupperwaring).
I’m just glad that he and his mom are ok (he’s an old Navy buddy of my husband’s) and didn’t have to leave their mobile home.
My husband’s ex-sister-in-law and her husband live in Clarksville and the creek by their property is running into their pool and the roof on their house is leaking in a couple of places, but they’re ok, too.
The only way we (here in MN) knew any of this was going on at all was that the ex-SIL posted on facebook, and I saw an article on Yahoo news about it. Well, and what you posted here. I hope y’all get the help you need and the floodwaters start going down soon.
Samantha Y., it’s easy to cross on the Shelby/Gateway bridge. Except, of course, for the damned idiots who blocked the entire northernmost lane of the bridge (and were starting to block the southernmost lane as I was going across) by parking their cars there so they could get out and stand around, gawk, point, and take pictures. Because, you know, no one could possibly need to drive on those lanes. But as far as unimpeded dry access, it works fine.
The flooding was all the way up to 2nd Ave as I went by, with a local lake in front of the Hall of Fame. I hope they don’t have anything important stored in the basement there.
I’m sorry to hear about anarchival. We probably have water in our crawl space, but otherwise though our front yard was under water during the worst of it, we are dry and fine now.
Oh, and we started getting calls and e-mails from concerned friends and relatives starting Saturday night, including from people in and near NYC, so there has to have been some news coverage.
Here’s the NYT story…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/us/04flood.html?hp
B: Catherine and I just got back from surveying the Community Resource Center on Omohundro Place off Lebanon Pike – about 75 yards from the banks of the Cumberland River. The bad news is there is about five feet of water in the building. The good news is that CRC just completed its April giveaway to all its partner nonprofits last week, so the warehouse was relatively empty, and Catherine ran a data backup on all her important computer files before leaving work on Friday — and brought the backup home with her.
CRC will be operating from our home until further notice. As soon as the water goes down and the warehouse can be dried out, Catherine hopes to be able to restock and resume contributions to nonprofit agencies across Middle Tennessee.
Your readers can get status updates on the organization at http://www.crcnashville.org/. There is a charitable contributions link on that page for anyone who wants to help.
I’m sitting in the Wash U library, with two more exams to go. I can’t even think about it now when all I want to do is get in the car and drive home to help out, to do something…anything. And I can’t get any updates on the news here. But you, Aunt B., and Nashvillest, and everyone on Twitter and Facebook have been invaluable.
Glad you’re still OK, and very grateful for the news updates. If it’s any consolation news-wise, you made international news today; there was a brief story on the flooding on this morning’s news in Madrid.
Good luck, patience and strength to you all! and thanks again for keeping us non-locals informed.
I’m glad some coverage has been done of the situation, and I really hope that a lot of help will be given for recovery.