Tennessee: My Home, My People

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Although it was never really trumpeted in the national media, I'm sure that by now, most of you have heard about the catastrophic floods that inundated Nashville and the Middle Tennessee area.

It is being called the "thousand year flood" and nothing like it has ever been seen around here.

The Cumberland and Harpeth Rivers overflowed their banks and the Cumberland crested at almost 52 feet - 12 feet above flood stage - flooding parts of downtown Nashville damaging everything it touched, destroying homes, businesses and lives. The Country Music Hall of Fame, LP Field (where the Tennessee Titans play), the Schermerhorn Symphony Center as well as many businesses on 2nd Avenue were all affected by the unprecedented flooding.

And for those of you concerned about it, the Charlie Daniels Museum had flooding in the basement, but the water didn't reach the museum itself.

This being Music City, scores of valuable musical instruments along with rare and expensive guitar collections were ruined, some that can never be replaced.

The stage of the Grand Ole Opry House was covered by the floodwater, the adjacent Opry Mills shopping mall was flooded destroying untold millions of dollars worth of property and inventory.

Whole neighborhoods were underwater and thousands of families lost almost everything they had accumulated over years of hard work.

Yes, it was heartbreaking to see the horrible aftermath of this storm; so many families disrupted, so many lives battered, so many plans put on hold.

But I'm not writing this column just to inform the rest of the world about the devastation in my home state, a job that was basically treated in a cursory manner by most of the mainstream media.

What I want to write about is the people of Tennessee and the true volunteer spirit of the Volunteer State.

In the limited coverage given the flood by the national media did you see anybody on a rooftop waiting for a coast guard chopper to pick them up?

No you didn't, because when something like this happens the good people of the mid south get their priorities in order.

First, thousands of prayers went up to the one who is truly in charge.

They didn't wait for or depend on the government; people took their personal boats into the flooded neighborhoods and picked up perfect strangers, taking them to the safety of higher ground.

One lady in Bellevue in West Nashville and her grandbaby were rescued from her second story window - which was in danger of being covered by floodwater - by her neighbor who had a boat.

Local businesses and individuals took food and water to anyone they could find who needed it.

Churches and synagogues put out the call for household items and the good people of Tennessee answered, inundating the storage facilities with everything from towels to trash bags, and volunteers have come from as far away as Virginia Wesleyan College, and probably even further.

Scores of volunteers armed with carpentry tools and bleach are going into the affected neighborhoods to help harried homeowners rip out carpet and rugs and tear down dry wall before the mildew and mold - always left in the aftermath of flood waters - can take hold, and purifying what's left with bleach.

Local radio and television stations held radiothons and telethons and again the generous people of the mid south responded by donating millions of dollars.

It will be a long time before the Grand Ole Opry will once again be performed on it's home stage, but there will be a Grand Ole Opry performed somewhere, in whatever building is available.

It will be at least six months before the Opryland Hotel opens its doors to guests again, but it will happen.

The musicians who lost instruments in the flood will buy other instruments and music city will roll along just like it has for decades, making music for the world to enjoy.

It will take a lot of time for the flooded out businesses in Nashville, many of which did not have flood insurance, to replace their inventory and open their doors for business again, but they'll do it, bigger and better than before.

The thousands of people who have had their homes destroyed and their lives so catastrophically interrupted by this flood will be on the job tomorrow and the next day and will build their lives back one block at the time, but build it back they will.

Why do I know this? Because this is the Volunteer State, the great and sovereign State of Tennessee and until the last shingle has been replaced, we are all in this together.

When I leave Tennessee I want to go to Heaven.

God, bless my brothers and sisters of my beloved home, the State of Tennessee.