Nashville flood of 2010

For those who still haven't heard about it... our city just experienced a major flood. Our home was not personally flooded or affected, thankfully. But I will truly never forget the experience.

I went over to my grandparent's house with the kids that day. It was a Saturday, Jake was working all day at the church for a Chuck Missler conference. I knew there was a storm coming, but that's only been more of a reason to head to their house. :) We lay the kids down for naps, turn on the news, and play some games over beans and cornbread. And if we loose power, hey- at least we're together. :) Anyway, this day was no different. Until...

The news started reporting "circulation" over spring hill. Tornados. Great. We watched for a bit longer and then they started zooming in to our area and with a purple marker, circling us and saying "THESE people need to head for cover RIGHT now". Awesome.

Micah and Mabry were the only ones still sleeping at this point. Everything outside looked calm. So we got Ashley, Emily and Abby into a room in the middle of the house. Mom and I made a plan that if something crazy happened, I'd run and get Micah, and she would go get Mabry. About 60 seconds after we said that, the noise level in the house exploded when a crazy rain/hail mixture started pelting the windows out of no where. My heart jumped, mom and I took one quick glance at each other, and RAN for the kids. Then somehow Mom, Grannie, Papaw and I all got the 5 kids into the master bathroom tub. We all crammed in that bathroom and just sat, listening to this crazy rain, praying it wasn't a tornado over us.

We found out later that a tornado was spotted about 4 miles down the street, but it didn't actually touch down. So after the weather passed a little, the news people said we could come out, and Micah sufficiently wet through his pants and into the bathtub (no better place I guess :)) we all came out. About an hour later I was packing up the kids in some still steady rain to head home and start dinner. Or so I thought...

What happened after that... I don't even think I have the words for. I've never seen anything like it. All four roads out of the neighborhood were blocked. I KINDA felt like I was in a movie. All of my wet kids packed up in the back of the suburban with frightened faces. People in other cars backing up in the middle of the road, turning around in hopes of finding a clear street. Lined up cars with stupid brave people taking turns crossing through brown rushing water up over their wheels. A couple of the roads I probably COULD have crossed, having a suburban, but there was no way I was gonna risk it with all of my kids in the car.

There were only four ways out of my grandparents' neighborhood. #1 Port Royal Rd:


Its hard to tell from this picture, but this is the place where Ashley said "Mom, that looks like a fishing pond" #2 Intersection of Duplex Rd and Miles Johnson Pkwy:

#3 Campbell Station:

#4 The other end of Duplex, going toward the back side of Haynes Crossing: I could get a picture of... someone had tried to cross unsuccessfully and there were two ambulances down there.

Scared and defeated, I went back to my grandparents. We unloaded the kids, and Papaw and I went back out to try to scope out some back roads to see if we could find somewhere safe to cross.



No such luck.

Jake was stuck at the church. The road had closed the police were keeping people at the conference until it cleared- and who knew how long that would be.

But the rain let up just a little, giving a chance for the "better" roads to drain off enough to let us pass. So Jake headed our way, and I followed behind him as we tried lots of different streets trying to find a way home.

And as we slowly treaded home, we saw cars abandoned with water up the windows. Homes looking like islands. Houses just 5 doors down with water pouring in under the door. I cried as we passed and the girls prayed aloud for these families. We saw no cars so I'm assuming they abandoned them hours ago.

Our house is up on a hill, so we were fine. Thankful... but grieved for what was around us.

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Since then, Jake has taken our youth kids on clean up and relief efforts. We've watched as images on our local news keep coming of the devastation in Nashville. Friends are sharing their homes with other families because they've lost everything. Our church is reaching out. Almost every church is reaching out.

We'll never forget this.

For those who live here and know these area's, I wanted to share this video... some now almost unrecognizable. I know there have been lots of video's made on Youtube, but I thought this one really captured Nashville well.

We'll never forget...