Somewhere Near Water

During my time at Vanderbilt, I worked with a lady named Robbie.  She instantly became a dear friend to me.  Even after I left the Medical Center, I remained in touch with her and still get together with her from time to time.  She is one of the nicest people you will ever meet, and I've told her this a thousand times, but I am truly blessed to have her as my friend.

Anyways, she was recently affected by the flood.  She is currently in the rebuilding stages of her condo.  I can't even tell you how much progress she has made in her home since the flood happened four weeks ago.  The good news is that if everything goes according to plan, she should be back in her home in six weeks.  Anyways, Justin and I had a gift for her, and we took it down to her last night.  The images that I saw will remain in my memory forever.  It was so hard to take all of the damage in.....and what we saw was NOTHING in comparison to what it was.  After being through the flood back home that happened in 2003, you still recognize that flood smell, and it still exists where Robbie lives.  It will definitely take some time to get everything back up and going, but everyone is working together without much help from people outside of Nashville.  While we were there, she took us around her condo complex and Justin snapped this picture:

If you were to walk through the woods on the left, you would reach the Harpeth River.  This river came over its banks and in some places water was estimated to be as high as the stoplights.  I don't know about you, but I just can't even imagine.  Again, this picture was taken four weeks after the flood.  Robbie told us that right after the flood, the piles of trash were so high in some places that you couldn't even see the tops of the condos anymore. She said the size of these piles made the dump trucks look like little Tonka trucks.

All I can say is that many of the people in Nashville are still hurting.  This situation, which only gave us about 15 minutes of national news coverage, is going to take the residents of this city a very long time to recover.  Sure, they are making progress, but it's going to take awhile.  President Obama DENIED Tennessee's request for special flood funding, which hurts our city even more. 

I do want to say this....if you feel led to make a donation to flood relief, The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee is a great organization. I'm not just talking the talk either.  Justin and I made a donation (the largest one we've ever made) to this organization through the GAC Flood Benefit Relief, we've donated clothing, personal items such as toothpaste and deodorant, food to the animal shelters, and made other purchases where the money went to flood relief victims.  Even if you can only give $1, please consider donating.  Many people in Middle Tennessee never imagined this would happen.  Never in a million years would I have dreamed that Opryland Hotel would have 8 feet of water inside.  I know many of you have been to Nashville and love visiting this city, so please keep this mind.  You just never know when something like this could happen to you.