we are nashville.

I recieved this in an email today and I thought I'd share. I couldn't have said it better myself. I love this city that I now call home. Please pray for those who are suffering.

***

 

The Cumberland River crested at its highest level in over 80 years.

Nashville had its highest rainfall totals since records began. People

drowned. Billions of dollars in damage occurred. It is the single

largest disaster to hit Middle Tennessee since the Civil War. And

yet…no one knows about it.

Does it really matter? Eventually, it will…as I mentioned, there are

billions of dollars in damage. It seems bizarre that no one seems to

be aware that we just experienced what is quite probably the costliest

non-hurricane disaster in American history. The funds to rebuild will

have to come from somewhere, which is why people need to know. It’s

hard to believe that we will receive much relief if there isn’t a

perception that we need it.

But let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment. A large

part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are.

Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did

you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people

pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people

trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our

biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think

about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we

were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw

attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own.

Some will be quick to find fault in the way rescue operations were

handled, but the fact of the matter is that the catastrophe could not

have been prevented and it is simply ignorant beyond all reason to

suggest otherwise. It is a flood. It was caused by rain. You can try

to find a face to stick this tragedy to, but you’ll be wrong.

Parts of Nashville that could never even conceivably be underwater

were underwater. Some of them still are. Opry Mills and the Opryland

Hotel are, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. People died

sitting in standstill traffic on the Interstate. We saw boats going

down West End. And, of course, we all saw the surreal image of the

portable building from Lighthouse Christian floating into traffic and

being destroyed when cars were knocked into it. I’m still having

trouble comprehending all of it.

And yet…life will go on. We’ll go back to work, to school, to our

lives…and we’ll carry on. In a little over a month, But in a way, they

changed everyone in this town. We now know that that it can happen to

us…but also know that we can handle it.

Because we are Nashville.