Nashville’s Underwater – Obama’s Focused on the Gulf
With 11 people now confirmed dead falling victim to the worst flooding to Nashville in over a century, day breaks on the Music City only to illustrate the devastation left behind by a weekend of torrential downpours and unprecedented flooding. As a proud resident of the greater Nashville area, I am encouraged by the spirit of those in this community – their willingness to offer a helping hand to their fellow neighbors impacted greatly by this horrible tragedy. The images streaming around the clock have been those which epitomize “community.” Relief boats and rescue personnel are coming in the form of local citizens. Absent from the footage is any sign of FEMA or any logos or monikers of federal agencies. Tennesseans are strapping it on and making the best of an extremely difficult situation. They don’t call this the Volunteer State for nothing now do they?
The morning’s images were that of rescue personnel transporting stranded patrons of local hotels across the newly created bodies of water. They were of parking lots completely submerged with cars now lining the bottom of the muddy pools. They were of families attempting to navigate their ways out of neighborhoods that were turned into island communities over the course of 24 hours. They were images of devastation and they were stories of unimaginable loss. 
I am deeply saddened and tremendously troubled by how little this tragedy has been carried by the national media. As I began my morning today, I searched high and low for any coverage from ANY of the major networks – including FoxNews. It just wasn’t there. Amidst relentless coverage of oil approaching the Gulf Region and updates on the hunt for the Times Square bomber, there were only brief cut-aways showing the damage created by a weekend of storms and flooding.
As I have watched my fellow Nashvillians navigating city streets and interstates in pontoon boats generally reserved for casual leisure, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Hurricane Katrina. Helpless citizens stranded in attics, cars under water, canoes and kayaks turned into rescue vehicles, all elicited similar reactions to those I felt when watching the victims of that natural disaster fleeing for safety and leaving behind a life that they would never know again.
That said, glaring in its dissimilarity is the tone and spirit of this disaster relief effort. Mayor Dean has done an admirable job in coordinating both disaster prevention as well as recovery – especially considering there wasn’t a soul that saw this coming. Unlike New Orleans, Nashville isn’t built below sea level. It took record rain and unprecedented water levels to lead to this disaster with the Cumberland River cresting nearly 12 feet over “flood level” and spewing into the heart of Downtown. Governor Phil Bredesen has been somewhat lowkey through this ordeal, but his role will undoubtedly begin now that the rains have moved on and the recovery begins.
“There is obviously a great deal of property damage,” Bredesen said. “No one is able to assess that at this point. We’re going to have to wait for the waters to go down a bit so we can find out what’s happening.”
The reality for many Tennesseans is that this disaster will be just that – a “disaster.” Estimates this morning were that more than 95% of the homes damaged in these floods will not be protected by “flood insurance.” The vast majority of them not sitting in “flood plains” were not required to have coverage for such a catastrophe and will not be covered accordingly. In times of economic strife, who among us could really be prepared for the effort that lies ahead now to rebuild these homes from the ground up? The President has spent the last 12 months talking about Americans who are “underwater” in their mortgages. Now these poor folks are underwater in more ways than one.
This tragedy and the local economic crisis that will undoubtedly follow may illustrate one of the most unfortunate shortcomings of progressive thought. Many of these houses now lost to the flooding are nice homes. While lower income housing was certainly no deterrent to flood damage, many of the worst hit neighborhoods are middle and upper middle class areas. While the world of progressivism loves to show its “compassionate” side when “poor” people are impacted similarly, where’s the cry for help when those left homeless are middle class Americans? These people aren’t “rich.” They aren’t staring at $100k to rebuild their homes onces their homeowner’s insurance companies deny their claims. They won’t be able to secure new mortgages or loans to rebuild. They have truly lost everything. That’s where progressives like President Obama are exposed for their hypocrisies. They don’t care about people – they care selectively.
In light of how bad it really is here in Tennessee, it is somewhat troubling that our nation’s President has been so slow to react to this crisis – and that is what this is – A CRISIS – and if its not yet, it soon will be. He has had ample opportunities in the last 24 hours to speak to this and has chosen not to do so.
I can admit that I would be thoroughly angered by his lack of commentary on the matter if it weren’t par for the course with this completely incompetent Chief Executive. He played politics with recent flooding in Rhode Island and Connecticut – offering “convenient” relief to some and completely ignoring others. I assume Nashville is simply playing the role of the latter. With the oil slick fast approaching New Orleans, it appears that this president can only manage to handle one environmental disaster at a time – and the one he has chosen is the one that aligns itself with his environmental initiatives.
I have never been one to engage in hyperbole for the sake of hyperbole – or even making a point for that matter. I am inclined in this situation to do so, but will attempt to refrain. I will however say that while I understand that the devastation here in Nashville is not on the same level with that which hit the Gulf Region from Katrina, it is certainly close. In the days following Katrina, many characterized then President Bush’s inaction as “racist” – as if he simply turned a blind eye to the victims of that tragedy because he harbored ill-will toward African-Americans (as if they were the only race living in the region – but I digress). Since I did not believe such to be the case with that disaster, I will not make a similar claim regarding this one. I will however say that for those of you who believed President Bush was driven to inaction by “racist” motivations to “ignore” the people of Louisiana, what do you think this President is doing for the people here in Tennessee?
Rather than turn to race, I am more inclined to believe that this is nothing more than yet another sign that this wonderfully progressive regime cares not one iota for middle class Americans. He knows they are divided equally in party affiliation and he especially cares not for those middle class Americans in the heart of the Southern Bible Belt. In fairness, as a collective they have no great affection for him either, but as citizens rather than as president, I do believe the duty of care owed leans slightly in their favor.
I have no doubt that as this story gains steam nationally – which will undoubtedly hinge upon the development of the story in the Gulf – President Obama will appear “concerned” in the aftermath for those impacted by the storm. His relationship with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen (Democrat) was greatly strained through the health care debate, so I would fully expect that President Obama’s efforts to rain federal assistance down upon Tennessee will be impacted accordingly.
As far as Federal Relief goes, I have long been of the mindset that they have little to no role in events such as this in the first place so assistance should certainly not be expected. They have neither the capacity nor the ability to effectively help until after the event has occurred. Financial assistance and longterm recovery support may be a manageable function of said government, but the short-term load must be carried by Tennesseans and I have to say that they are doing so admirably.
There are likely many long days ahead for those left homeless by this tragedy. I have no doubt that many in this God-fearing community take solitude in the fact that their lives were spared even if all of their material possessions are now lost. The towns and communities will rebuild as the water rescinds and Music City will once again go back to turning out Country tunes rather than human tragedies and stories of rescue and perseverance. After-all, this town is built on sad melodies and tales of hardship put to music. Who better to turn a storm and a tragedy into a point of pride than the fine citizens of the Volunteer State? I say no one.
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One would think this video likely caught President Obama’s attention… Maybe if the second half of his slogan was bannered on the other side it would have stolen a few minutes of his time away from the oil spill.
Tell me this doesn’t bring back thoughts of Katrina???
Here’s a house in Kingston Springs floating down the road…
Who knew Niagra Falls was just down I-24 in Nashville?
Check out this scene in Bellvue
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Outstanding work T. Please keep it up; Lord knows Obama and his media lapdogs won’t do it. I literally believe that he doesn’t care because Tennessee tends as a Red state.
He is the most despicable person ever to occupy the White House and is a national disgrace in my opinion. I’m gonna basically steal the first couple paragraphs for the Resistance and link back here. Tweeted as well.
Thanks Russ. Much appreciated.
I certainly pray that the us government addresses this catastrophe much better than they did with hurricane Katrina. Having lived through a flood myself, I will tell you it can be genuinely devestating. Even if you’re blessed enough to have the means to have the capacity to replace your own material posessions, there are always some items that cash can not restore. My heart definitely is out to these families and they’re in my thoughts and prayers.
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[...] Middle Tennessee still recovering from the worst flood in the history of the state, it was fitting that the final question was directed at the catastrophe and asked the candidates [...]