It’s become almost a battle cry, “We Are Nashville.” The whole thing was pretty surreal. I mean, really, who expects to get over 17 inches of rain in a 48 hour time frame? Who expects to see local parks transform into lakes over night? Who expects to see interstates you can’t drive? Or buildings floating down said interstates? Those are images you see on TV, not in your back yard.
And yet… there was almost no TV coverage. Well, if you were here, there was nonstop coverage, but outside Middle Tennessee… not so much. I had a friend call from Kansas two days later saying she had just heard…
WHAT? Is this not the age of 24 hour news? How can they go so long without covering what has been called a 500 year flood? How is that not news worthy? People lost their homes, their cars, their lives. Churches were closed because of… rain? Malls were swamped under 10 feet of water. And somewhere someone said there’s no story in Nashville?
Much like a tornado skipping through the land, the flood waters devastated one area, and a mile down the road was not touched. Streets were shut down, restaurants were closed, curfews were enacted. But there was no story?
I wonder if that’s because Nashville did not cry out to the government to save us? Nashville did not blame the President for the water that rush us. Nashville did not wait for buses to clear us out. Nashville did not use this as a chance to steal from someone else. In fact, Nashville‘s churches stepped up, volunteers showed up, neighbors started helping neighbors. People risked their lives for complete strangers.
I am so proud of the place I call home. And I am a bit saddened by the reality of, “If it bleeds, it leads.” Nashville got wet, we didn’t bleed. And somehow that much water was not enough news to most of the media. We didn’t whine about it. We didn’t take our frustrations out on other people. We did what we do best… we dug in, and we took care of the problems, and we took care of each other.
We Are Nashville. Music City Rising. The volunteer state. The way it should be.
Momma Kisses 
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