If you follow my blog, you know I LOVE to discover new places when given the opportunity to travel. I love researching and planning my visits to museums, antique shops, great restaurants, and all sorts of places that make that particular place unique and special. I love exploring a new city and visiting with people, and when I can, posting about my adventures on my blog.
Since my daughter started school in Nashville three years ago, it has quickly become my favorite place to visit. I have found the city easy to navigate, friendly, interesting and just plain fun.
I had a blast cruising the neighborhoods looking for this favorite Hugh Newell Jacobson home in Nashville. I had seen photos of it in design books, but to drive by and actually see it was a thrill for me. The only thing better would have been an invitation to come inside for a visit.
I got to visit my daughter AND go to the antique shows at the fairgrounds in Nashville in February. Talk about a treat.
I had the pleasure of taking these two cutie pies - very smart cutie pies who just completed their junior year at Vanderbilt, I might add - to the Loveless Cafe, a Music City landmark for yummy southern foods and folklore.
And, I have discovered one of my favorite blogs, Style Blueprint, over the last year, and keep up to date in all areas of fashion, design, and dining in Nashville through the lovely Liza and Elizabeth.
Another great Nashville blog I read is Kayce's blog, also about the stylish goings on in Nashville, her great clothing lines and her precious family who live there. Kayce's home was in a recent Country Living and she has great style in clothing and home decor.
My daughter, who fortunately came home right before the storms began, has found a place in Nashville that speaks to her heart and will be working there this summer. We have worried about Daystar as we have watched the news these past days.
So, over the last few days, we who love Nashville and keep up with the pulse of the city, have been amazed at the devastation that the recent rains have created.
I beg you to read this - in fact, I can't just refer you to this article - I must copy it to this blog. It is unbelievable what has happened in Nashville and how little people have heard about it.
We Are Nashville
Published: May 4, 2010
Allow me a moment to step away from the usual voice of this website.
What I am about to write has absolutely nothing to do with hockey.
If you live outside of Nashville, you may not be aware, but our city was hit by a 500-year flood over the last few days. The national news coverage gave us 15 minutes, but went back to focusing on a failed car bomb and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While both are clearly important stories, was that any reason to ignore our story? It may not be as terror-sexy as a failed car bomb or as eco-sexy as an oil spill, but that’s no reason to be ignored.
The Cumberland River crested at its highest level in over 80 years. Nashville had its highest rainfall totals since records began. People drowned. Billions of dollars in damage occurred. It is the single largest disaster to hit Middle Tennessee since the Civil War. And yet…no one knows about it.
Does it really matter? Eventually, it will…as I mentioned, there are billions of dollars in damage. It seems bizarre that no one seems to be aware that we just experienced what is quite possibly the costliest non-hurricane disaster in American history. The funds to rebuild will have to come from somewhere, which is why people need to know. It’s hard to believe that we will receive much relief if there isn’t a perception that we need it.
But let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment. A large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are. Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own.
Some will be quick to find fault in the way rescue operations were handled, but the fact of the matter is that the catastrophe could not have been prevented and it is simply ignorant beyond all reason to suggest otherwise. It is a flood. It was caused by rain. You can try to find a face to stick this tragedy to, but you’ll be wrong.
Parts of Nashville that could never even conceivably be underwater were underwater. Some of them still are. Opry Mills and the Opryland Hotel are, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. People died sitting in standstill traffic on the Interstate. We saw boats going down West End. And, of course, we all saw the surreal image of the portable building from Lighthouse Christian floating into traffic and being destroyed when cars were knocked into it. I’m still having trouble comprehending all of it.
And yet…life will go on. We’ll go back to work, to school, to our lives…and we’ll carry on. In a little over a month, I’ll be on this website talking about the draft. In October, we’ll be discussing the new Predators’ season with nary a thought of these past few days. But in a way, they changed everyone in this town. We now know that that it can happen to us…but also know that we can handle it.
Because we are Nashville.
About the Author
Patten's first NHL game was Tomas Vokoun's first career shutout in 1999. He has been a Predators fan ever since. A Nashville native and graduate of Belmont's journalism school, he has been a season ticket holder in the Cellblock since 2005-06. You can e-mail Patten at Patten@section303.com and follow him on Twitter @smashville. 
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