The 2010 Nashville Flood

This has been a tough week for most of us here in Nashville. On Wednesday, 30 employees from my company went out to a colleague's house to gut her home (can you even imagine?). There was such a great turn out that some of those people ended up helping her neighbors. On Thursday I was able to go and help another colleague myself. His house needed the same.

We removed everything from the house, pulled out all the flooring, and half the sheetrock. Looking down his street was a bag of mixed emotions. On one hand, everything everyone owned was piled out in the yards, including all the trash. But on the other hand, the curbs were literally bumper to bumper with people helping all the residents. Trying to process any part of that kept me up most of the night. It's one thing to see it on the news... and I did. Places I've been, streets I've walked in. But to drive up and actually see the devastation with my own eyes. To look into someone's eyes who has lost so much. It's a differnt thing all together. It makes me sick and emotional.

My company has been supportive allowing us to leave work when we can to help out since most don't have power. We have to work during the daylight. It will take many weeks to clean this all up.

And most people do not live in flood zones, so they didn't buy flood insurance. Like myself. It's horrible. Luckily FEMA has acted very quickly. They'd already been by the home I was working at. I heard a FEMA guy on the radio say today that they come out and assess immediately how much money the home owner qualifies for so the people can get the money within about 2 days. Right after the FEMA guy left his house, a quality inspector visited to see how the FEMA guy did. Obviously something has changed since Katrina. I thought that was great news and wanted everyone to know.

As I packed up his master bedroom, I asked myself how it would feel to have nearly strangers in my home removing stuff from my drawers, cabinets, and closets. And I started to feel like I have way too much stuff of my own. What is the purpose of all the stuff?

I'm going back out tomorrow to help another colleague who just got into her house last night. You simply can't imagine the smell of the water. When I picked up shoeboxes, brown muddy chemical-smelling water just poured out them all over me. People are having to wear masks and gloves. I can tell I breathed in stuff I shouldn't have. I'm still feeling the impact from yesterday. I can't imagine living in a house that is full of that.

Kids were out several days in the winter due to snow and ice, and they've been out all this week. They'll probably be in school half the summer to make up for it.