When we got to the mall, a Lexus in the middle of the parking lot was surrounded by water that was up to the bottom of the doors. I remember thinking, "Had it really rained that much?" With shopping on the brain, I forgot all about the rain. Joce (my sister) and I shopped around at the mall for a couple of hours and ate lunch, all while it rained. No big deal.
Then, we headed to Dick's. (Dick's is my family's go to spot for gifts for Stephen!) It wasn't until we were about to walk out the doors of Dick's that this lady stopped us and said, "The tornado sirens are going off - that's why we're waiting here." So what did I do? Convinced my sister that we should run to JoAnn's to get tie dye for the tie dye shirts I was planning on making with my students that week for field day. If I had children, I would have definitely entered a disclaimer that might sound a little like this: Little Hass - do as I say, not as I do.
Joce called her husband to find out that the weather was getting really bad and we needed to get home. Her husband is pretty laid back - so for him to have a sense of urgency meant something. My sister was pretty much freaking out the entire time we were in JoAnn's while I was making sure I got the best bang for my buck. Very typical. We finally ran out to the car and got completely soaked in the process. The whole way home we could hardly see out the windshield and we pretty much hydroplaned on 65 the entire time. So maybe this was kind of a big deal. I remember telling Joce that I didn't even know it was supposed to rain this weekend.
It continued to rain all afternoon. When it stopped, Stephen and I set out to find dinner. I can't remember where we originally wanted to go, but this is what we ran into about a mile and a half from our house.
What? I had no clue it rained that much. We were shocked. All evening we heard emergency vehicle sirens. So this is a pretty big deal.
Sunday morning I was up as usual at 5am to work on grad school and sub plans for the next week before church. Then, it started raining again. Hard. I basically sat in our love seat working on my computer for a couple of hours watching it come down in buckets. I turned on the TV to get an update. One of the news broadcasters mentioned that church goers should go to later services, if they felt the need to go. Of course we are going, I thought. I am a Church of Christ-er. You never miss Sunday service. I woke Stephen up and was talking a mile a minute about the rain. Let me tell you - he LOVES that in the am. Ha! While he was in the shower, I wondered if there would be church. I checked my email. Church was cancelled! I will never forget what the same broadcaster said about 30 minutes after his later church service comment - "Look, I am a PK (preacher's kid) and I am telling you NOT to go to church." All I am thinking is: This is a big deal people!
All joking aside, I have never seen it rain so much, for so long. It was a horrible disaster for our city. The days to follow were humbling; listening to stories of victims. One man interviewed on the Local News said that he had no job, no money, and lost everything. The only thing he owned was the clothes on his back. Sad.
School was cancelled all week for the students. The teachers went back only on Thursday and Friday. Instead of working in our classrooms, we were encouraged to go out into the community and help. I had to keep reminding myself that this happened in my city because everywhere I ventured looked beautiful and untouched by water. The waters in the picture above had down by Monday. I don't really understand where it went.
Just the other night, I attended the Metro Nashville Public School Board (the district I work in) monthly meeting for a grad class requirement. At the beginning of the meeting they allot time for awards and recognition. The principal at McGavock Elementary School came to the podium. He got a call at the beginning of the last week of school from the General Manager of Nike at Opry Mills Mall (the entire mall was flooded in May). She was given the choice to purge all the items in the store or salvage what she could and donate the merchandise. Fortunately, she decided to do the latter. She called the principal at McGavock and asked if she could use his school to set up all the merchandise for the flood victims in Metro School District by Friday. His reply was that all he had time for at the end of the year was closing up shop - but he knew someone that could lead a project like this. He walked down to his gym and asked his gym teacher if he would be willing to head up the project. They washed all the clothing, set it up in the gym, the gym teacher got over $2,000 worth of donations for food for the workers on that Friday, and found people to donate drinks for the victims waiting in line to shop. They had over 2 million dollars worth of Nike clothing in their gym for FREE to flood victims. Each family had a personal shopper accompany them as they found merchandise around the gym. It was incredible to hear. It made me feel proud to be a part of this city and school district.
For Stephen, when the rains began, he was studying for finals. Monday was to be the start of his crazy week. The original plan was to have two finals a day for three days. Sunday night he was informed that Trevecca would be closed on Monday. He was frustrated. He just wanted them over. The Monday finals (the ones he wanted to get over with the most) were moved to Thursday, which also meant his short one week break between semesters was decreased to just 6 days. Bummer. We did doing pretty good though if that was the worst thing that happened to us from the flood.
Stay tuned as I continue to catch up...
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