Daily Archives: May 9, 2010

photography, weekly-winners

Weekly Winners (May 2 – 8)

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This week has been surreal.

I have no idea how many people truly know the natural disaster that occurred in Nashville, Tennessee last Sunday. The National Media has been horribly MIA.

Middle Tennessee flooded. Grand Ole Opry had water three feet over its stage. Opryland Hotel will probably be closed for MONTHS as the bottom floor had over 10 feet of water inside. The Symphony Center lost two Steinway Grand Pianos and their Organ was badly damaged. The Cumberland River made it up to 2nd Avenue in downtown Nashville, cresting at close to 52 feet. Flood stage is 40 feet. 2,000 homes were damaged, and the footage is spookily similar to images that were shown post-Katrina in New Orleans. Damage totals are estimated at $1.5 Billion dollars, and that total is climbing. The warehouse in which many, many musicians stored their gear — instruments, sets, speakers, amps, monitor boards, video boards — got flooded. Lost gear is estimated to go into the millions there alone. I have heard it said in various places, that this may very well be (monetarily) one of the US’s worst natural disasters in history.

In the days since, I have seen an outpouring of love within the community. I have said it multiple times in this blog alone — this city has humbled me countless times in the last week. I now know why Tennessee is called the Volunteer State. People helping people. Looting has been practically none-existent. Instead, its been an outbreak of volunteering. Neighbors who were once strangers, and now dear friends. The biggest story of this flood is that camaraderie that has appeared out of nowhere.

So for this Weekly Winners,  I bring to you photos of the flood, with a few extras thrown in here. I’ve broken my self-imposed photo limit for this entry.

Now on to my photos… for more Weekly Winners, please visit Lotus. And give them all some love. And here’s hope for returning to some sort of normality here this week.

Rain drops
At my house, we just got rain last Sunday. I took this photo mid-afternoon in my front yard. We were thankful, so thankful, to be spared. But we watched in shock as the water continues to rise in Nashville. *

Nashville Flood 2010
The Music City Star, which is a key part of Nashville's transit system, partly covered in water. You can see in the foreground the Railroad Crossing signs covered up the the sign in water.

Nashville Flood 2010
Water rationing is having to happen, as the water treatment plant ended up submerged. Some gas stations were also underwater, and there was a brief time in which some stations were out of gas... because trucks could not get in to deliver fuel to stations.

Nashville Flood 2010
Nashville Skyline... the water in the forefront should not go that far out. LP Field, where the Tennessee Titans play, looked more like a soup bowl... just like the parking lots around it. (Field is not in the photo, but it would be not far to the right outside of frame.)

Nashville Flood 2010
The TA just off the Interstate. Yes, that's a car in the parking lot submerged in water.

Nashville Flood 2010
These trucks weren't going anywhere any time soon... They were parked in the TA parking lot. Notice the Salvation Army building also under water to the left.

Nashville Flood 2010
The Cumberland River... far out of its banks.

Nashville Flood 2010
We Sink or Swim Together -- this photo is now considered one of my most interesting on Flickr. Luckily, we've opted to all swim together. (The please stop pumping referred to the businesses that were pumping water out of their basements... and right into other's basements! Oops!)

Nashville Flood 2010
Joe's Crab Shack -- Yes, those are windows. The weird thing, at this point, the building STILL HAD POWER! A transformer didn't blow and that area of downtown lose power for another day!

Pinks
As if to bring hope, many fresh flowers began to bloom.

Batman Building
Batman building... lit! This week, this building lost power and went dark for the first time since it was built in the '90s. It was good to see it lit again! *

Symphony Center being cleaned up
Disaster Kleenup truck parked in front of our Symphony Center... the perfect way to close this Weekly Winners as we move on to a new week. *

♥ ♥ ♥

All photos (except those with * — those taken with my cell phone) taken using a Nikon Coolpix L20.

All of my photos available on my Flickr stream.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL MOM’S!!!


I am excited to be helping plan a benefit concert to be held in Nashville on May 17th. But I wanted to post that anyone wishing to help outside of Nashville can donate to our benefit. Pick one of our charities you’d like to support (Nashville Red Cross, Salvation Army, Nashville Humane Society, or Happy Tails Humane) and mail a check made out to THE CHARITY’S NAME to:

BANDing TOGETHER
P.O. Box 23474
Nashville, TN 37202-3474