Last night Keith Olbermann commented on Countdown that “if there’s anything worse than your community being hit by a disaster, it’s being hit by a disaster while other and bigger disasters unfold.”
Being from the New York area, I’ve been closely following the attempted car bomb plot in Times Square and last night’s resulting arrest. This past weekend I also happened to be in New Orleans for jazz fest, but news was dominated by the unfurling oil spill disaster in the Gulf, which continues to pose imminent ecological and economic catastrophes.
Anyways, since many of you who read this are from out of the Tennessee area and the national coverage seems to be a bit lacking, I figured I’ll post some information about the latest happenings here about the Nashville Flood.
Let me start out by saying that I’m extremely fortunate – I returned from NOLA yesterday to my apartment which is both dry and with power. That is not the case however for many folks. Just a few miles in either direction down the main road off of which I live, large communities are completely flooded. A number of our iconic landmarks have been affected, including the Schermerhorn (where the Nashville Symphony plays), Opryland Hotel, the Country Music Hall of Fame, Bridgestone Arena, and LP Field, to name a few.
It’s going to take time for much of the communities here to recover. As this flood was the result of around 20 inches of weekend rain, this event was not foreseen. MANY people and businesses do not have flood insurance here, as flooding was not seen as any posed threat.
Jazz-wise, everything is canceled for the time being. The Nashville Jazz Orchestra is not playing tonight at the French Quarter Cafe tonight, and the Nashville Jazz Workshop has canceled classes.
If you wish to get involved with help, here is a link that organizes many of the local organizations. You can also text ‘REDCROSS’ to 90999 to donate $10 for relief efforts.
I’ll do my best to keep you updated with stories and efforts as they pertain to this blog.
-evan