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I rode my bicycle down the street to show the devestation left behind after a flood.  What you see here is repeated in communities all over middle Tennessee.

There were very few people down in floodland and very little activity.  I don’t know if it was Sunday, mothers day, or phase I is over.  Most everybody has pulled out the contents and stripped the houses four feet up the wall.  I guess they were all racing to get the wet items out of the house so it can dry.  Up to now very little money has been needed to be spent.  Tearing down a house really only takes a few people and a few days, which is very little cost.  Its putting it back together thats the big unknown.  This neighborhood is working middle class that is not rich nor poor.  They have professional jobs, but mortgages and not that much disposable money, so coming up with $75K to put your house back together is going to be a challenge. 

The Red Cross had to spend two hours talking an older fellow into letting people help him strip his house.  Apparently he was just sitting in his house.  I heard of a local teacher at her house in ball of tears.  The sense of volunteerism was still at a high, but I wonder how long this will last.

We spent the day helping at the burger and supply tent.  The Harpeth Valley Elementary and Harpeth Heights Babtist church purchased supplies of water, food, trash bags, bleach, etc etc.  Homeowners and helpers trickled in for hamburgers, hotdogs and some good support of their neighbors who are in the same situation.  Everybody had the same story, “we were told we didn’t need flood insurance”.

This is what FEMA water looks like, its a six pack from Anhauser Busch, but no hops, just water.  Cases of these six packs are stacked up everywhere on corners and around mail boxes.

Two Red Cross guys showed up and dished up steaming hot BBQ dinners.  We got three dinners and gave them to a tired homeowner.

We gave these meals away in about two minutes to a weary homeowner who had a small crowd to feed.

Today was interesting.  Beech Bend suffered from too much help and not enough help.  Lower Beech Bend Drive was a zoo of volunteers, and it was all good….and chaotic.   Food Tables every few blocks, people driving around asking if we wanted water, teams of people in the same T-Shirt walking around to each person asking if they can help.  Robert and I walked around for hours and really only helped a few people because there was so much help that had descended on each home.  The spirit was rather high and in a weird way it was exciting.  Everyone coming together because everybody got wiped out, the water showed no preference.   Every house looked like it threw up on the front lawn.

School buses were showing up with teams of people in the same colored T-Shirts volunteering.

ALL the yards look just like this.

The insides look like this.  Take everything out, pull up the flooring and rip out the sheet rock.  Then go under the house and pull out the insulation under the crawl space.  Spray everything with bleach and let it dry…….then what??  Nobody has flood insurance to rebuild.  These are all middle working class folks who still have a mortgage and just getting by like the rest of us.  We dont live in a flood plain and nobody was told to buy flood insurance.

We tried to volunteer at this house but there were at least 10 people helping and after awhile you can have too many people overwhelming the home owner and they just shut down.  This was what we found over and over again.

This garbage crane truck shows up and after two houses it is full.

Here is one of the numerous food tents that appeared.  This one is from O’Charleys.  Anderson Cooper broadcasted from here just the other night.

Here is another food table that appeared.  People descended on the area bringing everything imaginable.

Here is a house fully gutted.

We wash the floors with bleach, pressure washed and shop vac’d all the water off.

Extreme spring cleaning.  This floor was just bleached, pressure washed and vacuumed.

Here is what the Red Cross and a church group dropped off.  A bucket full of cleaning supplies to the tune of at least $40 per bucket.  The Red Cross box had a squeegee and mag lite….at least $50 per box of stuff, and they were just handing them out.

Here is a nice subdivision that has 24 high end condo houses.  Flooded up to the doorknobs on the first floor.  Total gut job for all these folks

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Here is picture of a massive neighborhood pickup that was organized by two ladies and they had a full spread of food that 100’s of people participated in….amazing.  

This stack of water, canned drinks, snacks are everywhere.  Groups such as the Red Cross, Churches and others are setting up food stations every few blocks.  There are cases of water stacked on curbs all over the place.

The best we can determine the water had receded a bit, but the picture says it all.  One half mile from my house in three different directions were three major neighborhoods (Beech Bend, River Plantation, Morton Mill) that were flooded to this extent.  At last count three people died in River Plantation.  An older lady drown inside her house at her door.  The shot below is courtesy of our friends at Aerial Innovations.  They have many fabulous photos are viewable and for sale at http://aiimages.ifp3.com/site/#/gallery/flooding-may-2010/

OMG!  I biked down to the end of the Bend to lend a hand this afternoon and I see CNN set up and I see Anderson Cooper….oh my goodness.  Here is the guy who broadcasts from the most devastated places on planet earth and he sets up shop 1/2 mile from my house.  He was a very nice and sincere fellow.  He gave all of us plenty of time to take pictures, shake hands and listen to the stories.  He was genuinely moved by the volunteerism that everyone is pouring out here and all over town.  The spirit down there was high today because lots of people are showing up to help.  Three trucks offered me water and food just walking down the street.

I helped the Wardles drag out more of the mucky yucky duct work that is in the crawlspace under the house.  I told Anderson that my realtor said that we don’t need flood insurance because “If water gets up here, then downtown Nashville will be flooding”…..unfortunately he was right.  Thank goodness it didn’t rise another five feet then we would be under water. 

I would like to thank CNN and Anderson Cooper plus the whole crew for coming out and spotlighting our situation.  Especially the fact that nearly every home was not insured for flood insurance because we are considered to be in the 500 year flood plain.

Pictures below are from my cell phone, so nothing of great quality, but it tells the story.

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Link to video clips of the episode in Nashville
http://www.allthingsandersoncooper.com/2010/05/nashville-rising.html

Video Link to CNN and Brad Paisley on Beech Bend Drive  http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/05/07/ac.brad.paisley.cnn?iref=allsearch

The road is still blocked off because of this damage.  This is in between the golf course and the bridge over the Harpeth near Sawyer Brown Road.