The Beginning

On Saturday, we knew something was wrong.

A friend from work had come over early Saturday morning to help my husband construct an outdoor playset for the kids. It was raining hard and lightning was flashing, so they began working on it in the garage. Since severe weather never lasts more than an hour or two here, they figured they’d wait for it to blow over and then move the pieces outside as they completed them.

But the rain didn’t stop.

All day long, it fell- torrential, unrelenting rain accompanied by booming thunder and eye-searing flashes of lightning. By 2:00, we had about an inch of water rushing from the back door of our garage out through the front, and our friend, a news photographer, had been called into work. We turned on the television and began seeing video of flash flooding around Nashville, as well as periodic tornado warnings. Hubs decided to go into work and the rest of us stayed glued to the television at home. That’s how we saw this live…

http://www.twitvid.com/player/SZBE5
Interstate 24 flooded and within a few hours, the cars that had stalled there were floating like corks in the water. When this truck came through, there was collective cursing across the city- Twitter lit up with Nashville residents demanding to know the driver’s identity. But the video was about to get even more incredible.

“There’s a building floating down I-24!” my stepdaughter shrieked a few minutes after the truck had come through. I ran into the den just in time to watch this. (the video gets really incredible at about 1:21.)

Unbelievable, right? And scary. We really couldn’t believe our eyes. A few hours later, water covered the entire interstate and at least one of the truck drivers stranded here had to jump out of his cab and swim to a rescue boat that motored in to help. One person died on this bridge.

All over town, there was flooding. A few minutes down the road from my house, this road, which I use every day, quickly filled with water and people had to be rescued from their cars, including this ten-year-old, who couldn’t swim. I watched the scene unfold in disbelief.

Saturday was very, very bad. City officials begged everyone to stay in their homes Saturday night and Sunday, and after what we’d all watched on television, I don’t think anyone had a problem with that. It was perhaps the biggest flood the city had ever seen.

And it was about to get much worse.

Forecasters predicted that within 24 hours, we’d have twice the rain we’d gotten by the end of Saturday. How on earth would the city withstand that amount of water?

It wouldn’t.

To be continued.

There are lots of ways to help- Here’s where my money will be going.

My church has created a flood relief fund- The money will go directly to helping people in my area, which was one of the hardest hit by this flood. You can donate to that fund here– just make sure you earmark your donation for the Flood Relief Fund.