Destruction

Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of rain. The rain was heavy and consistant, but I assumed it was a normal rainy Saturday. So I went ahead and ran a few errands... drove to the store, picked up lunch, nothing strange except lots of rain.

About 2 hours later the rain was still coming down hard. A small river started flowing across the street from our house.

I sat inside and watched the rain continue to pour all afternoon, all evening, all night. The streets I had been on to run my errands that morning were now completely under water. A portable classroom from a nearby school was floating down the Interstate, just across the median from where I had been a few hours earlier. There was still more rain coming down. More than I'd ever seen. I was glued to Twitter (thank you Nashvillest) and the internet, constantly checking all the images pouring in of what was happening around Nashville. Like this picture I found on Twitter of the Nashville Farmer's Market. More footage, more pictures, more updates. I could see so much of what was happening around this city that I've become so attached to. Nashville feels like home. I'll always love my piece of Missouri, but Nashville has been home for 3 years and I expect that it will be home for much longer. Seeing these pictures made that feeling so much stronger for me. I felt like MY Nashville was flooding. My home. My neighboors and my streets. I was thankful, for once in my life, that my family was not here with me.

The rain continued through Sunday evening. At least 27 people have died in the area because of the storm and subsequent flooding, according to CNN. But my neighborhood was basically untouched. The water never got higher in my little culdesac than it did Saturday afternoon. We are lucky. The "stuff" that's been destroyed over the past few days in this city is uncomprehensable at this point. Nashville has been marked. It's been marked deep and will continue to pick up the pieces from this event for a very long time.

Monday evening the water was still rising downtown and in a few areas close to the river. Someone posted this picture on Twitter of the Grand Ole Opry. The picture was immediately copied and spread and the comments were flooded with people saying, "this picture makes me cry," or "this breaks my heart," or ,"we love you Nashville!"

There's so much about this city that draws people in. Nashville is friendly and creative and exciting. It's easy to call it home. The loss that we've seen in the past few days is great - but I believe that we are a strong city and we will be stronger still.