Even when the rain falls...Even when the flood starts rising....

This is what a flood can do to a home.

I'm sure y'all have all heard of the recent devastating floods in Nashville.  Our county and all of the surrounding counties have been declared federal disaster areas.  I didn't mention anything about the floods in my last post...simply because I didn't know what to say.  Even though I saw the images on TV and donated items to a Red Cross shelter that was set up across the street from us, it still seemed surreal.

John and I were out of town weekend before last, so we didn't experience the 48 hours straight of driving rain -- 15" I believe.  We saw some reports in our hotel in NC that Nashville was getting hit hard and experiencing some flooding, but we had no idea what we would be coming home to.  Our friends were amazing at calling and texting updates of what was going on as we were on the road -- 1 friend lives on our street and we were checking with him to make sure our road would be open.  His response:  "Belmont's ok.  Everywhere else is horrible.  All you can hear is thunder and sirens."  After driving through some INTENSE rains Sunday evening as the storm system moved east out of Nashville, we finally made it home to our apartment -- dry, undamaged, and with power.  If I had not seen the TV footage, I would've thought we were just getting a hard spring thunderstorm.

Despite the Governor and Mayor's pleas for folks to stay home and off the roads on Monday, my job required all staff to come in because it was finals week/graduation week for the students [they gave the students the day off and re-arranged their exams!].  My trek to work was a little scary, but nothing like the images on TV.  At work, I discovered that several co-workers had experienced water damage in their finished basements or some lower rooms in split level homes, but one co-worker, Darla, had lost everything.  Everyone in Nashville probably knows at least 1 person who lost it all or sustained great damage.  

On Tuesday of last week, we went to help a co-worker, Candis, whose lower family room had been ruined.  They had already ripped out the flooring and lower drywall, so we mainly helped by pulling debris out of her yard. 

On Friday of last week, some co-workers and I finally got to go help Darla.  The picture at the top of the page is of her living room.  She and her husband had to evacuate their home Sunday morning, and grabbed only the bare essentials as the water was rising.  Her high school daughter, Abby, was spending the night on a youth group so she had an overnight bag with her.  Darla saved Abby's prom dress and her scrapbook, and then grabbed their family Bibles, some Bible study materials that she has worked through over the past year, and her knitting.  Her husband (a studio musician) was able to save some of his instruments, but had to abandon his keyboard.  Darla, being the sweet soul that she is, immediately went to help her neighbors get out as well.

The theme I've heard from many survivors is: the water came SO FAST.  Her street was rapidly filled with water and her house flooded all the way to it's roofline, and they were not able to get back on their street by car to acess the damage until that Thursday.  Her husband and the headmaster of a nearby school were able to travel in by boat and take the video below.  Darla's house was red brick with a black roof (2nd shot of the video).  So the water moved through or sat in their house for almost 5 days.  The whole home was ruined.   

Amazing, eerie video of their house under water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75zADehgc4Q

These shots show us working on Darla's house.  My main job was to cart items to the street as they were removed from the house.  The local government arranged a trash pick-up for flood items, but it had to be divided into 4 piles and placed on the street (debris, appliances, household items, etc.).  It was so sobering to see all the things, all the 'security' that this family had worked for dragged out to the street and put in 4 muddy piles.  Really gives you some perspective on the "stuff" in our lives.  It's humbling to hear these flood survivors say, "it's only stuff."  Would I be like that or am I too tied to my things?

Darla came in to work yesterday and we all went to lunch to hear her relay her experiences.  It has been amazing to hear the stories of people just pouring love over this family and other flood survivors.  I have been so impressed with middle Tennessee overall.  When we were at her house last Friday, volunteers, city employees, policemen, firemen, youth leaders, church members, her high school friends, her former students -- pretty much everyone in Hendersonville-- stopped by to help or drop off food and supplies.  And it sounds like that kind of community involvement is happening everywhere.  People are just coming out of the woodwork to help.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot since this happened is: 

what would I grab if I had 1 minute to get out of my house?  

Lyrics courtesy of Needtobreathe, Photos from Candis Thornton, Starr (perryplayground.blogspot.com), and Jenn (togocup.wordpress.com).