Oh hey, Nashville is under water

[CaptainChewbacca]

Apparently its a busy news day

At least 29 people are dead from the record-breaking flash floods in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.

In Nashville, the Cumberland River is slowly receding. But the damage is done -- homes are ruined and the city is a mess.

Families are trying to clean up and salvage anything they can. "You just pick up a box, you just pick an item and say, 'Is it savable?'" says Woody Hall.

But so much of it is not. Hall and his family are trying to cope with the damage. Treasured items, including things from his childhood, are now destroyed.

"My son's playhouse, we watched it float away," he says. "My grandfather, myself, him, built it when he was little kid. It's just traumatizing."

Across this city, the reality of the damage is just beginning to sink in.

This morning the Cumberland River crested at a 70-year high -- twelve feet above flood stage.

"You know you see it on TV all the time, but you never expect to live it," says Hall.

In Nashville, city officials are asking residents to cut their water use in half, after flooding shut down one of only two water treatment plants.

Even the heart of country music is still underwater. The Grand Ole Opry, along with the Country Music Hall of Fame, are both flooded. No one has been able to get in to see if the priceless music memorabilia including recordings of stars like Hank Williams, Patsy Klein and Dolly Parton are still intact. It may be months before anyone sings at the Opry again.

"The history of Nashville, it goes so far back," says Paul Overstreet, a country music singer and songwriter. "It's like the roots of country music are right here...The instruments that people played, you know, all the great bluegrass artists and the country artists, historical artists and all their instruments, their clothing are in these halls."

Those roots are strong and people like the Ron Davis say they will draw on that strength.

"We're not looking weeks or months, we're looking at years," says Davis, "But we'll survive this."

More at the link. Holy HELL this is some bad news. Between this and New Orleans, looks like the south just can't catch a break this week.

[Mayabird]

Between this and the bazillion tornadoes all over, you mean? Or did something new happen to New Orleans?

Also, did any of these people die for reasons that didn't consist of them being idiots who thought they could drive through flood waters?

[LadyTevar]

I knew it was happening, as WV was next in the path of the same storm system, but ... damn. What really hurt was that the storm system stopped moving and just sat over Tennessee and Kentucky. The ground couldn't soak up the rain fast enough.

WV got luckier; the storm system kept moving and most of the moisture had already fallen. We still had several creeks rise dangerously, but nothing like the Cumberland River. I don't think Nashville even had proper flood-protection, did it?

[JediToren]

Yeah, it's pretty bad. They're saying it only rains like this once every millennium of so. The historic Grand Old Opry is trashed with five or six feet of water at least. Most of the historic parts of the downtown area like first and second avenue and broad way were flooded. There was a double-wide trailer from a school floating down interstate 24 the other day. Then they had to release a couple of the area dams.
It's awful. Fortunately I've stayed dry, but a good friend of mine was on tour with the Lowcash Cowboys and came back to find his home flooded.

To top it off, one of the two water treatment plants is flooded as well, so the Mayor and other authorities are screaming for people to conserve, and yet people were still washing their SUV's.

Fortunately the waters are receding so the real recovery can get underway. The sad thing is that the national news is barely mentioning it at all. Most of my friends and relatives elsewhere in the country are learning about it through facebook and twitter.

[Patrick Degan]

And as you can expect, Sean Hannity is being a lying sack of shit:

This was a bad week, I think one of the worst weeks for the press. We have this massive flood, and we're going to get into this in a special report we're going to do on the program tomorrow night. We have a massive flood in Nashville, the president, as of now, has yet to comment on it. I mean, loss of life, devastation, financial ruin.

Meanwhile, FoxNews.com sez:

May 6, 2010 | 5:06 PM ET
Tennessee Governor "very pleased" with response to flooding by Obama administration

"I've never seen this kind of response," said Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen (D), "and we've had our share of tornadoes and so forth." The Volunteer State governor was speaking to reporters on a conference call from Nashville, which has been hit hard by rains last weekend.

"FEMA and the White House could not have been more helpful in this thing," Bredesen said. Record amounts of rain fell Saturday and Sunday, more than 13 inches recorded in parts of Tennessee. Officials Thursday reported the state's 20th death from the storm and subsequent flooding.

After speaking with the governor Monday, President Obama signed a disaster declaration for the state Tuesday, sending federal aid to Tennessee to help supplement the state and local recovery efforts. While Governor Bredesen wouldn't put a precise dollar amount on a damage assessment, he admitted, "it's a lot of money, it's a lot of money. I'd be astonished if not a billion dollars."

Governor Bredesen recognized his state's emergency was "sandwiched between" the news coverage of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the attempted car bombing in New York's Times Square, and while he wanted to call national attend to the "extraordinary event", he noted the Obama administration has been focused from the beginning. "FEMA was on the ground before the rain drops fell," said Bredesen, who noted he'd not only spoken to Mr. Obama, but Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett. "We're very pleased with the response we've gotten from the administration."

Bredesen said that during their Monday conversation, he and Mr. Obama did talk about a future presidential visit. Both agreed it would be counter-productive for the president to come down south in the first days following the storm as so many resources are needed to accommodate a presidential visit. Bredesen said however that "if he wanted to do so at this point, he'd be very welcome."

The Tennessee governor says no one in his state feels "slighted" by the fact the president has not yet been down to assess the damage first hand. "He has a lot on his plate, and we're working through these things with FEMA and the Red Cross," said Bredesen. "But he's welcome to come any time he wants," as is Secretary Napolitano, to whom Bredesen has also extended an invitation. To date, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, who was in Tennessee today and participated in the conference call with reporters, has been to the state twice since the weekend's storm.

Nashville's disaster was, fortunately for them, nowhere near as devastating as what New Orleans suffered in 2005, or as lethal. It's been bad enough, though, with the homes and lives of thousands as well as the city's economic heart ruined and likely the ongoing BPocalypse in the Gulf has been responsible for eclipsing the tragedy in Nashville.

Meanwhile, the American Red Cross has links for contributions or volunteering for assistance to the stricken city. Text "Red Cross" to 90999 and a $10 donation will be assessed on the bill for your mobile for disaster relief.

[ShadowDragon8685]

So basically, it was the antithesis of the reaction to Katrina?

Instead of having nothing doing, FEMA was on the ground before the wet shit even started falling from the skies, and they basically managed this emergency... Competantly?


And of course, Hannity's being a shitcake over it.

[Molyneux]

So basically, it was the antithesis of the reaction to Katrina?

Instead of having nothing doing, FEMA was on the ground before the wet shit even started falling from the skies, and they basically managed this emergency... Competantly?


And of course, Hannity's being a shitcake over it.

I suppose it's good to see that we learned SOMETHING from Katrina, at least.