Well as many of you have heard, Nashville just seen the worst flooding it has seen in years! First, I want to let everyone know that we are all OK. The power finally came back on in the middle of the night, and the internet is up for now (hopefully it will stay that way until I can finish my post). Home phone is still out and cell phone is very hit or miss, mostly miss. I don't have any pictures to post, but the sights have been absolutely amazing. You should google Nashville flood just to see some of the pictures. To see water covering the tops of cars on Int. 24 is something hard to believe. The water this morning was 6 feet deep in the Opryland Hotel!
Our adventure started Saturday morning when we woke to HEAVY rain and that low rumbling thunder, my favorite weather. The entire time I was in Texas I complained about missing the rain, so I guess God was just showing me what I had missed (I didn't say I had to see it all in one weekend, but God does have a sense of humor like that sometimes!). Since the soccer game was canceled and it was going to rain all day, me and Brad decided to take the kiddos to the movies. They had been wanting to see Furry Vengeance, one of those crazy kid movies you pay to see because you love your children, if you haven't gotten there yet with your kids, you will. Anyway, movie was kinda stupid, but again the things you do for your children! We left the movie theater about 3:30 or so and set out on our 30 minute drive home. We got about 10 minutes from home and had to turn around due to the fact the Harpeth River was running over the road. At that point I didn't think much about it because we still had some other ways of getting back to Fairview. We turned around and headed for Natchez Trace to hit highway 96 and come in that way. Well we got to 96 to be turned around again due to flood water. I was now starting to get a little antsy at this point, but we still had 2 more ways, take Int.40 to Fairview and hit 96 that way or Int.40 to 840 and come in the back way to Fairview. So we headed to 40. On the way the radio says they are closing 40 at Dickson. My heart starts to race a little at that point. There goes option 3 and only one more to go. We get about 2 miles from our Fairview exit and the interstate comes to a standstill. Tractor trailers are parked all up and down the side, and traffic is crawling! Come to find out they had closed 40 at the Fairview exit and were making all the cars get off. Luckily we made it home safely at about 6:30-7:00. Remember I said 30 drive!
We got up Saturday morning to get ready for church as usual. Everything went great until 5 minutes before we walked out the door, the power went off. Remember we live in the church house, so if our power is off so is the churches. We went over to church and decided to hold service in the fellowship hall with all the doors open and candles lit. It was such an uplifting service. We had probably at least 100 people who come to worship with it raining a monsoon outside. I mean it was absolutely POURING rain and all those people still came. I will say once the singing started by the candle light I did get a tear in my eye. It was AMAZING!!! After a short service we headed back home to the dark. We played games and entertained 2 homebound, wild children until we went back to service that night. After service and still no power I set out to find the kiddos something substantial to eat. We had peanut butter crackers for lunch and that wasn't going to cut it for supper too. The entire town of Fairview was without power, so that was out of the question. I know Bellview and Franklin were both under water so that wasn't an option either. The only chance I had was to get to Dickson about 30 minutes away. We made it there and back with no problems. They did still have 40 closed, so when I got to the interstate the traffic was unimaginable. There were cars and trucks parked everywhere at the interstate, just waiting for them to open it again. While in Taco Bell with the kids, I met a man and women trying to get back to Kentucky. They were coming back from Breckenridge, TX where they had been to a funeral. What a small world. We talked a while and I wished them well trying to get home.
Our power finally came on in the middle of the night! The kids are out of school today and according to some teachers, may be out for a few days. Their school suffered quite a bit of flooding, so who knows when that will be cleaned up. Please keep praying for the people here. The rain has stopped, but the rivers are still rising due to runoff. The Cumberland River (the river that runs downtown) is suppose to rise all the way until tomorrow night. Downtown is already under about 4 feet of water and it is suppose to rise 6 more feet. It is an unreal sight. Interstate 40 is closed all the way from Old Hickory to Hickman county, about 50 miles! There are people stranded everywhere, with no clue how to get around Nashville with all the interstates closed. Just an amazing power of the God we have!
