You know what’s Crazy? I’ll tell you what’s Crazy!™
How interminable this disaster is.
By this I mean, the atrocity just keeps going and going and going, like an evil Energizer Bunny.
I went to a Rutherford County Community today, South East of Nashville. These poor souls still can’t get dry access to their sub division.
The Floods began on May 1st. They were in full bloom by May 2nd. by May 3rd, the flood water in many areas had subsided and was going down all over middle Tennessee.
By may 10th, the flood water is down everywhere. Everywhere that is except for the Blackman Community outside Murfreesboro.
A dozen homes exist on this part of Sales road. To get to these houses, you have to go through a 100 yard gauntlet that dips slightly. That dip is presently filled with four feet of water.
The families here have yet to dry out. The families here are upset. The families here are stupefied because they don’t live near a river or lake.
So why are they still flooded? Why won’t the water subside?
The local Emergency Management Agency official tells me that they can only speculate that there are caves under this region, or perhaps sink holes that are saturated and the water has no where to go.
Things are so bad that a man with a four by four picks up the kids in the neighborhood from 6am till 8:30am. This neighbor shuttles the school kids through the four foot lake that blocks their sub division so they can get to the bus stop.
He also picks up businessmen and women who keep their cars on the other side of the Sales Road lake so they can go to work.
This is the Volunteer spirit.
This ain’t no Katrina baby. We ain’t sunbathing on top of our homes with painted rooves that say HELP.
FEMA officials have stated they are amazed how much clean up began before they even hit the ground.
The volunteer spirit in Middle Tennessee was all ready engaged. Neighbors had all ready helped neighbors. Gangs of do-gooders spread out through the city doing good. And when they finished doing good in one location they moved on to the next person who needed a helping hand.
It’s been astounding to watch.
But that is more difficult to accomplish in the Sales Road neighborhood. That is because people still need canoes to get down their driveways. They can’t get clean up crews into the neighborhood or garbage trucks to pick up the trash.
The scary thing is that ambulances and fire trucks would have a hell of a time getting in if there was an emergency.
The water is dark and murky and it still has a current.
I talk to a grandmother who is driving a grandmother type car.
“I wouldn’t recommend driving that through that,” I say referencing the flood water before her.
“Oh no,” she laughs. “I wouldn’t dream of that. I’m waiting on my grandson to pick him up so he can cut his other grandmother’s lawn.”
Just then I see a scraggly faced teenager. He is ambling along the side of the lake. He gets to the marshy, bog of mud and what appears to be quick sand. I call it Gator alley because it looks like something you would see in Florida.
He pulls off his socks and walks the rest of the way in his bare feet.
He seems disgusted as he meets his grandmother with feet that look like they have been painted with shoe polish.
Then I see a biker. He is dressed in one of those tight fitting bike riding outfits that always makes you look a little effeminate with a big bulging crotch. The funny part about this bike rider is he is carrying his bike on his shoulder. On his feet he is wearing knee high rain boots. He looks strange, but you have to admire his determination to ride his bike.
He tells me that the community spirit here is amazing.
“The outside world doesn’t know how bad it is in there,” he says. “We’ve been on our own for the last ten days.”
The EMA official locks the hubs and spins through alligator alley. Mud churns up behind his vehicle. He tells me it is the first time he has been able to get to some of these homes since the flooding began.
A stay at home mom rides up on an off road vehicle with big nobby tires.
She tells me that she is coordinating things on the other side of the lake and today she actually brought a bunch of school kids across the pond to meet the school bus.
“We can’t start cleaning up till the water goes away,” She says.
I ask her when that might be.
She shrugs her shoulders and says she doesn’t know.
The forecast this weekend is for more violent weather.
Maybe ttornadoes on Sunday.
And that is crazy.