It started as a heavy rain event. The rain started either late Friday or early Saturday, May 1, and continued unabated thru most of Sunday, May 2, 2010. The effects were felt throughout the region from southern Kentucky, southern Illinois, Tennessee and northern Mississippi. All told, more than 19 inches of rain fell on average with some areas experiencing more than 24 inches of rain in a little under 48 hours. Several major rivers, including the Cumberland, which flows thru downtown Nashville, the Harpeth and other rivers overflowed their banks. The Cumberland crested at 51.86 feet, or about 15-20 feet above normal.
Then on May 3rd, the Army Corps of Engineers began releasing water from the many dams on the Harpeth and Cumberland rivers in order to protect the dam infrastructure. This is when the water rose in Nashville, causing the lower part of the city and many neighborhoods in the area on the rivers banks to be flooded. The Grand Ole Opry, Bridgestone Arena (where the Nashville Predators play hockey) and Titans Stadium were partly flooded among the many tourist and buildings of interest in the area.
One result of this release of water meant that the Cumberland, which flows northeast would flood even worse downstream from Nashville. One of the hardest hit counties was the neighboring county of Cheatham as the Cumberland flowed out of its banks and flooded vast regions of the county for several days. This is where my story begins.
You see, Nashville has the biggest spirit of volunteerism I’ve ever seen. It is common to see folks show up when people have tornado damage, from cities and counties in the area, just because “people need help”. There are several online volunteer organizations including Hands On Nashville, that help coordinate when people need help. I went to the website during the week and looked at what volunteer opportunities existed. I picked a listing for a family in Cheatham county that needed help with “flood cleanup”, saved the directions and planned my Saturday.
I had seen all of the flood coverage on TV. I had friends on Twitter and at work who had sustained flood damage and I had their first hand accounts of dealing with both the actual flood and the aftermath. What I saw, however, as I drove thru the rural part of Cheatham county didn’t prepare me for what I found at this family’s home.
First, the road was still covered in 4-6 inches of mud and it was still wet. If you looked thru the treeline along the road to the treeline across a hay field of several hundred acres, the mud IN the treeline was as clear as day and clearly meant the water was 5-10 feet above ground level and covered the whole neighborhood. I later found out that the trailer home where I was had water up to the top of the trailer. And, it wasn’t until the end of the day that I realized the street ran parallel to the Cumberland and the water was only 20-30 feet below the yard down the bank. In otherwords, the Cumberland was 30-40 feet above where it was that day and had covered a square mile or more of land!
The family and the few volunteers that arrived were stripping the contents of the house out into the yard and carrying all of the unsalvageable stuff to the other side of the road for flood debris removal by the county. Clothing and dishes and such were set aside to dry. There was a small garden shed that had floated up over a small picket fence, turned upside down and was wedged between a chainlink fence and a small tree.
Shortly after I arrived, we turned to the garage/workshed that was next to the trailer. It hadn’t been opened yet. When we first tried to enter, the stench from sodden and rotting paper, wood and other materials was such that without a face mask, being in the room was not possible. It was an odor of mildew, mud, and rot. The floor was covered in mud and a strange muck and white bits. I finally realized that the muck was the insulation from the ceiling that had the flood waters had flooded past, causing the drywall to pull away from the drywall nails and the white bits were actually the white texture beads in the “popcorn” ceiling paint. It was as if a room sized snowglobe had been shaken violently and the glass broken, letting the white beads and such to simply settle on the floor.
And, that wasn’t all that was on the floor. The building had been filled with furniture, boxes of all kinds of “stuff”, tools, toys, etc. All of this stuff was now in a giant jumble, again, as if the room had been shaken violently. We set about emptying the room. It was a mess. The muck and detritus from the flood made the task almost impossible. With only a single door to move thru, it meant one person at a time coming and going. Because of the nature of the doorway floor, wheelbarrows were not easy to use.
Slowly, in the humid heat of the afternoon, we emptied the room and eventually got to where we were shoveling the muck into the one wheelbarrow we had to dump it outside. Aside from the members of the family and their friends, we didn’t talk much. We just worked and worked. The goal was to get as much of the muck and mess out of the interior to allow the building to dry out. Mold is a huge problem in this situation. In fact, if you drove around many of the areas hit by the flood, you’d be struck by the mounds of drywall and such on the curb awaiting pickup. This was the best way to fight the mold that was quickly growing EVERYWHERE.
Finally, I was able to see that most of the heavy work was done and I was able to say my goodbye and wish the family the best, given the situation. The father hugged me and thanked me for coming to their aid. We were both almost in tears. I was honored to have come out to help a total stranger. It is a day I will never forget.
