Dear Mr. Rawles,
We live in southern Middle Tennessee, about an hour south of Nashville, and we are watching the news coverage of this weekend’s record-breaking flooding in the Nashville area. It is confirming our conviction not to live in a metropolitan area as we see how people are affected by this natural disaster.
All three interstates going through Nashville–I-65, I-24, and I-40–have been shut down for long periods of time yesterday and today. The cars and trucks stuck on I-40 as I write this stretch for over five miles, and the drivers
have no way of backing up, turning around, getting off on a side road, or crossing the median. They are stuck! Note to self: when evacuating an area, do not take the interstate.
The motels are full, and even the Opryland Hotel is being evacuated because of rising river levels and sporadic electric service. They’re interviewing hotel guests on the news who have been evacuated and left stranded at a local high school with no food, no medications, and no creature comforts. The ones who had cars had to leave them behind. Most of them probably did not have cars because they came in by air. They are complaining about the inconvenience and lack of information. Imagine if this situation [or a comparable situation] were affecting the whole state or the whole country–what would these people do?
Public services are being stretched way beyond capacity as police and disaster workers try to rescue people from their cars and from their homes, and try to keep people off the roads. I have heard that over 600 people
have been rescued. Rescue workers are exhausted, and now that it’s dark their work is even more dangerous. So far, five people have died as a result of this flooding, but the count will probably go up as the flood waters go
down. Some areas are dangerous to drive into, but due to the overwhelming scope of the flooding, no rescue workers have been able to go in and put up barriers or warnings.
Many of these homeowners probably did not have flood insurance, as their homes were in areas that have not flooded in anyone’s memory. (Some of the these subdivisions are located within the curve of river bends, which
seems incredibly short-sighted to me.) A levee on the Cumberland River is leaking in at least one area and there is concern that it will break. Several areas have no electric service, no home phone service, and no cell phone
service. They are saying that the water supply is safe, but they are asking people to conserve water. Lots of people are spending the night in shelters that have just cropped up today, including people from out of state who got
stuck here when the interstates closed down.
All of this gives our family food for thought and helps us discuss how we can be even better prepared for a similar situation in our area. It also makes us wonder how our nation would fare if a disaster struck across several states or the whole country. It is obvious that there simply aren’t enough police or emergency workers to take care of everyone at the same time. So many of the flood victims being interviewed on the news don’t seem to have any sense of personal responsibility for emergency preparedness. – Ginny
James,
I have recently started reading your blog. Since I started from scratch six months ago my family and I have stored food, stored water, learned firearms and safety, learned first aid, purchased communications equipment. Some of the ideas were put to test this past weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. with the “once in a century” flood. Our area of Nashville received 15 inches of rain in a little over 48 hours. To putt that in perspective: Our annual rainfall for this area is around 45 inches. Many areas flooded out.
My family and I live on a lake. The water came up to our house but no major damage. Many others were not so fortunate. Things I found out. Scanner radio came in handy to listen to on the ground reports of rescues. For your readers I would suggest they know the local [public service] frequencies. This came in handy vs listening to all the other channels further away from where we were being affected at the time.
I listened to a rescue crew report that a nearby road flooded over within a mile of our house. If we had needed to bug out at that point I would of known not to use that road. One observation were all emergency crews acted professional however at one small point they simply could not get to everyone. Two portions of the interstate (I -24 and another I- 40) were flooded. Both interstates are major roads for Nashville.
One crew was asked to go to a location but they were blocked in on the interstate by traffic and could not move forward due to water over the road. The call was transferred to another crew who handled it. The idea struck me that sometimes no matter how well the intentions are help may not be able to arrive on time thus self sufficiency would pay off. Nashville did not have looting during this crisis. However my family and I were prepared with food , guns, ammo, safe drinking water if that time had arrived. Things I would change: CB radio batteries in portable CB were dead when I went to use it. Fortunately we had power at house and I could recharge the rechargeable batteries. I saw a neighbor outside on the lake our property fronts in a boat needing help to secure docks that were in process of floating away. I ran outside to join him. I made two mistakes on running to his aid:
I failed to let any member of my family know I had left. I also did not take my cell phone. Simple mistakes but nonetheless if the boat we were traveling in flood waters had tipped over my family would of had no clue that I had gone out in the water on a boat. Another small one was my Goretex rain gear about a month ago was obviously no longer water proof. I decided I would wait till next fall when the rainy season hits again to replace this gear. I would of never guess that I would really need this gear in the torrential downpour. I simply put it the gear on and stayed wet. Last night I purchased new rain gear from an online site, with the lesson learned.
The other part I learned and observed was peoples reactions. Some people are very level headed during a crisis and could make good decisions. Others were in panic mode. I still have a lot to learn but felt comfortable in the knowledge we were semi-prepared. I will fine tune some things from this experience for the next event. “Living and Learning”, – Kris