Is everyone ok?

ripkenintheminors · May 1, 2010 2:55PM

Once upon a time during major storms we all kept in touch to make sure everyone was getting through.

Our small town got obliterated today. We are the land of 3 rivers with plenty of creeks running through the town. We received 13.5 inches of rain today alone. Schools, churches, businesses and plenty of homes were washed out. We are getting hammered again right now. Believe it or not forecasts are calling for another 2 feet of rain in the next 24 hours. Prayers for the safety of everyone in the path of destruction.

thenavarro · May 1, 2010 2:57PM

Hope you and your family come through it alright.

Mike

ripkenintheminors · May 1, 2010 3:02PM

<< Hope you and your family come through it alright.

Mike >>

Thanks Mike. Check my facebook for the video clips if you have not already. I have never seen anything like this in my life. What is bad is that most of the highways/interstates are closed. With that said a person couldn't run if they wanted to.

divecchia · May 1, 2010 4:29PM

Hope everyone comes through OK. Prayers going out to all the families in the area...

Donato

nightcrawler · May 1, 2010 7:10PM

A stay well to you and all those around you.

Prayer's sent.

Ironmanfan · May 1, 2010 10:54PM

things like this put a lot in perspective; my prayers are with you Chris

IMF

larryallen73 · May 1, 2010 11:11PM

Where do you live that are getting such crazy storms? Best of luck.

Sportsamerica · May 1, 2010 11:23PM

Watching Fox News this morning and seeing the Interstate 24 underwater...

Chris, hope your family is save...

thekid8 · May 1, 2010 11:32PM

Chris
Prayers are heading your way
Mike

ripkenintheminors · May 1, 2010 11:35PM

Thanks folks. I am around 75 miles west of Nashville, Tennessee.

Spent the night at a disaster relief center partially as a volunteer and partially as a refugee. With the threat of storms I shut everything down except electricity. Spent much of the night watching the radar and running rescue missions to save people stranded. One of the worst natural disasters I have ever seen. I have video uploaded to facebook.

Still a lot of rain on the way. 13.5 inches yesterday and another 2 feet expected by midnight tonight.

Bill, thanks for your note. I'll get back with you in a bit hopefully.

zep33 · May 1, 2010 11:52PM

WOW Hope everything gets better soon!!!

ldferg · May 2, 2010 12:22AM

If you've seen the video with the house on the interstate, we drove through that exact spot on our way to Boston, 2 hours before it flooded. We were eating when we saw the live video feed. Unbelievable. We're about to hit NYC in the next 20 minutes.

ldferg · May 2, 2010 12:24AM

Chris, Where are you located? 2 more feet of rain... I hope you and your family remain safe.

ripkenintheminors · May 2, 2010 12:37AM

<< Chris, Where are you located? 2 more feet of rain... I hope you and your family remain safe. >>

Middle Tennessee, west of Nashville.

It hasn't stopped raining since 11:30 last night. The worst of the storms appear over. Now if we can keep the creeks from flooding the town again we just might make it. At least 2 of the schools became part of a creek and have mudslides covering all of the floors. A lot of good people homeless today.

tennesseebanker · May 2, 2010 2:32AM

Hey Chris, Glad to hear you are ok. My family and I are above water and doing well also. Although we are pretty much trapped from going very far.
Looks like more of the same today.......

VikingDude · May 2, 2010 2:42AM

Looking at some of the YouTube videos just gives a person heartache. Good luck with everything.

tennesseebanker · May 2, 2010 3:21AM

Here are some pics from around where I live...................

Pigs · May 2, 2010 3:31AM

Hope everything drys out quickly. Living in the Northwest we've seen our share of flooding and it is never fun. Best of luck to you out there and keep the cards dry. Doug

akuracy503 · May 2, 2010 4:32AM

Anyone know if Goodletsville has been affected much by the rains?

stown · May 2, 2010 9:22AM

Holy carp. Y'all stay safe!

otwcards · May 2, 2010 9:27AM

What amazes me is the stupidity of some people. The roadside has obviously washed away and the remaining road looks to have lost some support. And what does the dolt do? Walks over to the edge of the unsupported road surface to look. These are the people that you see sliding down a river bank into raging water and everyone feels sorry for them.

It's a terrible thing that's happening out there. I hope everyone stays smart and stays safe...

tennesseebanker · May 2, 2010 11:08AM

Here is a pic a friend of mine posted on his Facebook page, This is Interstate 24 around Nashville.

jeffcbay · May 3, 2010 12:58AM

Wow... stay safe guys.

Ironmanfan · May 3, 2010 2:56AM

scary stuff.........

Garabaldi · May 3, 2010 3:23AM

I went through the same thing in RI 4 weeks ago and had water everywhere. We lost roads, malls, homes and many buildings. What a mess it was, we were lucky and only had a couple of feet in my cellar. I lost the majority of my collection, but I will one day get it back. Oh well, hopefully the water receeds and it starts to dry out.

ripkenintheminors · May 3, 2010 6:50AM

Can't put this in words and it is only getting worse even after the rain.

Levees are breaking, dams are being relieved pressure and this is only creating more destruction. Even communities in west Tennessee that did not receive much rain are now flooding over. My wife is stranded in west Tennessee and was put right in harm's way at a time nobody saw anything coming. Adding to the frustration is the fact that funding for help is yet to be approved. Amazing.

ripkenintheminors · May 3, 2010 6:52AM

Not sure if this will work or not. Here's a vid of my neighborhood:

There Goes the Neighborhood

Goodsport40 · May 3, 2010 7:28AM

I am 20 minutes South of Nashville. We were blessed down here with little damage so far.

This is a major catastrophe for Nashville and the immediate area. The video on local tv is sobering.

Stay safe my fellow middle Tennessean's.

Robert

Dboneesq · May 4, 2010 2:26AM

Chris,

Just got back home after being away for 5 days. PLEASE stay safe ... God Bless Nashville.

ripkenintheminors · May 4, 2010 4:09AM

<< Chris,

Just got back home after being away for 5 days. PLEASE stay safe ... God Bless Nashville. >>

Thanks so much. Through it all we lost one school for the year. Our kids had already missed 13 days for snow and now they will miss the remaining 18 days for flood damage.

My family is still stranded in west Tennessee. My wife and baby were in northwest Tennessee which did not initially receive much rain. When levees in the state began to break and dams were relieved pressure all of a sudden Dyer County was in trouble. Last night my parents were evacuated. So much damage here in the state. Still unreal to me that the Opryland Hotel is under water. Going to be a long, painful recovery.

SidePocket · May 4, 2010 4:12AM

That's an unbelievable amount of rain, hurricane levels. Stay safe.

ldferg · May 7, 2010 12:53PM

Chris,
I hope everything ended up well for you and your family. I live a little north of Nashville and my family was safe. I was in Boston until the rivers rose Monday afternoon (took a red-eye back for work).

Akuracy,
Goodlettsville had some minor flooding (is this possible)?? :0

ripkenintheminors · May 19, 2010 6:38AM

Fortunately my family made it back home safe. Fortunately our home received minor damages and we could still live in it. Fortunately our only real "loss" was a golf cart that was literally under the water. We did have insurance and it has been fixed.

Unfortunately there are still a lot of good people without a home. In a county not far from here they are yet to begin issuing permits to even allow people to rebuild their homes. They will begin next week and only issue 10 permits per day. When you consider that 450 homes were washed out this becomes a problem.

In the interest of honesty I am still having a very hard time wrapping my mind around what happened. More than one place that I have called home in my life received extensive damage. In fact, every place that I have ever called home received significant damage in the storm. The Opryland Hotel in Nashville has been a family tradition since my birth. It will be a wonder if they get it open in time for Christmas. The Carousel in Nashville I have taken my daughter to since her birth is gone. These things are minor in the grand scheme of things but it still hurts and it will take time to fully put things in perspective.

Thanks to those of you who offered your concern and support. Please keep the people of this state in your thoughts and prayers.

stormsurge · May 19, 2010 7:23AM

Glad to hear your family is back together and you still have a place to live!

ripkenintheminors · May 19, 2010 7:29AM

<< Glad to hear your family is back together and you still have a place to live! >>

Thanks so much. We were very blessed.

Here is a picture of the local elementary school that had to be closed for the rest of the year. FEMA/HazMat teams are currently gutting the school in hopes of having it open for class this fall. Needless to say most of the class materials were lost. The water in some areas of the school reached 6 feet high. I was given the opportunity to enter the school when the waters receded to try to help salvage anything the teachers could save. I would have to show the pictures to put it in perspective.

ripkenintheminors · June 15, 2010 6:55AM

Hey folks. The disappointment continues here in Humphreys County.

Long story short we had a haz mat team hired to clean the school. The county was delayed in getting emergency money and could not keep up with the checks to the cleaning crew. Rather than giving a break the crew left. Teachers are now in the building trying to clean up thee elementary school in hopes of having it ready by August. 35 teachers have essentially lost everything they have built up over their careers in regards to resources. FEMA/TEMA and insurance is not going to be able to cover personal property, especially after $1 million in damage to the property.

My heart goes out to them so I attempted to put on a charity concert. Since we are close to Nashville I figured we would have no problem landing a recognized musician come here. No luck. I even had one group tell me they would cut me a discount to have them come and play to raise some money. The idea was to raise funds and put money back in the pockets of hte teachers so that they would not have to bear the financial brunt of this.

Several of you have contacted me since May 1 asking what you can do in addition to praying. I have set up a fund at a local bank. If any of you would like to help, please let me know and I will give you the address. Every little bit helps. I am currently planning a local event next month that will hopefully generate some cash. Thanks again for your concerns,

SoonerCowboy · June 15, 2010 9:54AM

We received a foot of rain yesterday here in OKC. Highways were closed down and many streets along with houses flooded out. Not mine because I live in Yukon which is about 10 miles west but I do work in the city. It took me a little over 2 hours to make a drive that normally takes about 25 min at the most. The highway leading to my work was flooded out and the highway patrol was stopping and turning cars around. First time that I ever seen cops make people drive the wrong way on the interstate. The last 8 miles of my drive to work took me 1 hour and 45 minutes. But it did make the work day shorter.

2dueces · June 15, 2010 12:07PM

We lost 20 people in the Camp Pike flood last Friday morning. A good friend that I work with lost his twin brother. Terrible. His brother, his brothers girlfriend, her daughter and her granddaughter all drown. Thanks goodness Eric didn't have his three children with him on the camping trip. Everyone knew somebody or was related to someone from this area. Tragedy like this makes you stop and realize how fragile life is and what a blessing it is.
I realized I was wasting my life away watching TV and went out and did something about it.

MeteoriteGuy · June 15, 2010 5:28PM

Sorry to hear about the flooding damage Chris, glad to hear it didn't get as bad as it looks like it might have. Hopefully FEMA and other organizations have been of good assistance. Not sure who we managed to not flood here.

I have yet to water my Tomato plants since putting them in the ground. They are setting in water now from rain the last two days. Crazy how much rain there has been.

Have you given thought to maybe starting an auction or fundraising like thread, as we have done in the past. I sure I could find a couple things for it.

ripkenintheminors · June 16, 2010 5:42AM

<< Sorry to hear about the flooding damage Chris, glad to hear it didn't get as bad as it looks like it might have. Hopefully FEMA and other organizations have been of good assistance. Not sure who we managed to not flood here.

I have yet to water my Tomato plants since putting them in the ground. They are setting in water now from rain the last two days. Crazy how much rain there has been.

Have you given thought to maybe starting an auction or fundraising like thread, as we have done in the past. I sure I could find a couple things for it. >>

I would not be against it but my time is very limited. In addition to my real job I am organizing a big community fundraiser. If my schedule calms down I will see what can be done. Thanks for the offer.

Is everyone ok?

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