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The difference between disaster in Nashville vs. New Orleans
***Bumped for updates. And because the Nashville flood isn’t getting nearly enough coverage**
A friend of mine on Facebook posted this excellent letter written by Jim Reams demonstrating a refreshing change from the victim mentality: “America, Hello From Soggy Nashville.” (Photos added, courtesy of Tennessean.com)
America, we had a pretty bad flood happen here in Nashville. We noticed that you didn’t notice. That’s OK, there was a bomb that didn’t explode in Times Square and and oil spill in the Gulf. It took up all the news space. Seriously, it’s OK.
Here’s the deal with our town. We have one particular industry here, the music industry, which isn’t really that big in the grand scheme of things, that has made a lot of money putting out an image that we’re a bunch of inbred hillbilly yokels who sing about sexy tractors and watermelon crawls. We know that’s what you think, and that’s OK. Meanwhile we are walking around in our regular clothes, not in cowboy hats and boots, going to our jobs in healthcare and publishing and tourism and tech, just living our lives in peace.
Now, it’s true that we aren’t entirely like some of you. We hold the door open for old ladies and say thank you to the cashier and get called “hon” by the waitress at the Waffle House. We say “y’all” and “all y’all” and we eat grits and biscuits. And here’s another thing, we’re quick to help people, but we’re also quick to mind our own business. There are a lot of famous people in this town. We leave them alone. I saw Jack White at my favorite watering hole recently. Everybody left him alone. I saw Michael McDonald at an Indian buffet recently. There were 100 people in that restaurant, everyone left him alone. We all know where Nicole Kidman buys her groceries and where Vince Gill eats breakfast on the weekends, yet you never see paparazzi hanging out in those places. This isn’t New York and it isn’t L.A. That’s how we like it.
So, now that something happens that deserves national attention, you’re leaving us alone. We’re OK with that. Because we’re helping ourselves. That’s how we roll here. The volunteer effort here has been amazing. There aren’t people clamoring for a government bail out. Nobody is bitching at FEMA. Nobody is looting. Nobody is getting raped at a shelter. We’re helping each other. We’re cleaning up and we will move on.
This is a big deal, America. I know several people who have lost everything. I’m helping clean up, and offering clothes and a place to stay. There are thousands of similar stories like that in Nashville. We help each other out. We do what we can.
So y’all go on about what you’re doing and we’ll go on about what we are doing. But I just want to let you know, right now this is the strongest city in America. Right now this is the proudest city in America. So, after we clean up, come see us sometime. Y’all are always welcome.
Please check out Jim’s Tumblr feed for his first-hand pics of the devastation in Tennessee. And, of course, please consider making a donation to the Nashville Red Cross.
For those who would like an even simpler and faster way to donate, you can text REDCROSS to 90999. An automatic donation of $10.00 will be made and there will be a $10.00 charge on your monthly cell phone bill for the donation.
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UPDATE: There has been $1.5 BILLION in damage to personal property and businesses. There’s no telling yet how much damage has been done to roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Which is why it’s so disturbing that today is DAY #8 since the flood waters ravaged Nashville, and we’ve still heard NOTHING from President Obama. To take a cue from Kanye West (and subsequently, the Left’s talking points), I guess it’s fair to say “Obama doesn’t care about black people in Nashville.”
That might explain why we’ve gone 8 days with no public speeches from Obama on the Nashville flood. WhiteHouse.gov features his Wall Street finger-wagging and his nomination of Elena Kagen to the Supreme Court, but no mention of Nashville. The @BarackObama Twitter feed mourns the passing of Dorothy Height and Lena Horne in between plenty of partisan swipes at Republicans, but still no mention of Nashville.
Contrast that with Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina. President Bush declared a State of Emergency for Louisiana two days prior to Hurricane Katrina making landfall, and he spoke about Katrina several times on the day of the disaster. Rescue efforts began the next day, and two days later Bush gave a Rose Garden address outlining the federal government’s relief efforts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as though Bush — or the federal response — was perfect. Local and state government really dropped the ball and federal agencies were no better in their effectiveness, but at least Bush didn’t publicly ignore the crisis.
Obama’s dilatory response to Nashville should come as no surprise, as it took him over 10 days to verbally respond to the massive oil spill in the Gulf. Check out the illustrated timeline which details the “priorities” which occupied President Obama’s time while he dithered in response to that disaster.
You’re doing a heckuva job, Barry.
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UPDATE: A couple excellent editorials…
Patten Fuqua asks “The Nashville Flood…Why Have We Paid So Little Attention to It?”
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.
J.T. Ellison asks “After the Nashville Flood, Where Is Obama?”
…the national media is non-existent. There is no looting. There are no fires. There is no anarchy. All you see is love. Community. Active responsibility for our neighbors and friends who have suffered a tragic loss. Too many volunteers. Too many donations. We all saw what happened during Katrina. We didn’t want that to happen here.News is usually focused on conflict and extraordinary events. If this is not extraordinary, what qualifies? Is it a prerequisite that extraordinary events require blame or violence to be worthy of a story?
We get the message they’re sending.
Without violence, loss doesn’t matter.
Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
Thanks for pushing this message out there. Even though I graduated from UK I already donated to the local chapter of the Red Cross. Amazing how this isn't getting any media attention.
I don't understand your complaint. President Obama has received regular briefings on the situation, sent FEMA to Nashville prior to the start of the rain, talked with Governor Bredesen on Monday morning, May 3, and signed the federal disaster declaration on Tuesday, May 4.
Rather than making a big PR show of it, he has instead made sure that the federal response was timely and effective. Both the governor and the mayor have praised FEMA's response.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/06/ground-raindrops-started-falling
Hi Chuck,
Thanks for writing. Hey, I’m glad that President Obama responded to Nashville Mayor Karl Dean’s request for assistance, and I’m glad FEMA's performance shows they have learned from their previous mistakes. I’m glad for the sake of all the people in Nashville affected by this flood.
Obama’s actions you described are very similar to President Bush’s actions in response to Hurricane Katrina, the actions for which he was publicly lambasted as being uncaring and non-reponsive. And I find it very telling that President Obama chooses to prioritize partisan politics while all this is going on, attending celebrity dinners where he could make jokes about Jay Leno, criticize Arizona for enforcing federal immigration law, and use his weekly radio mobilize blacks and latinos to help Democrat candidates in the 2010 elections.
But he can’t spare 30 seconds to call attention to what’s going on in Tennessee. That’s not “making a PR show of it,” that’s calling on Americans to come to the aid of their fellow countrymen in time of crisis. That’s what a president should do, rather than focus his efforts on growing the size of government and further dividing the nation along party lines.
II don't know the exact numbers, but over 100,000,000 houses were completely destroyed in Mississippi alone–then there were the ones, like what you see in Nashville, which were flooded but fixable. The entire town of Waveland, MS was completely GONE, and most of Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian were gone as well.
Rail Road cars filled with chicken corpses washed all through Gulfport.
It took weeks for power to be restored, and once the power was restored, there was no place
In New Orleans, the destruction went on for miles and miles. I remember going over there for our Valentine's day curry tradition (obviously about 5 months after the storm), and there were virtually no lights visible in huge portions of the city.
I know that your city is going through some hard times, and I genuinely feel for you, but you should rethink whether there's any comparison when you look at the facts. I think the level of response from our President is entirely appropriate to the level of disaster that occurred.
Hi Amy, thanks for commenting.
Nobody can dispute that Katrina caused multitudes more damage than the catastrophic flood in Tennessee. But if one simply watched our President and the WhiteHouse.gov website, one wouldn't even know a flood has devastated Nashville and the surrounding areas. And a quick look at MSNBC.com, CNN.com, FoxNews.com, ABCnews.com, CBSnews.com, and NBCnews.com show not a single mention of the flood or its aftermath! Playboy's 3-D centerfold is getting more coverage. Betty White on SNL is getting more coverage.
That's my beef. Your mileage may vary.
While it may not be as big as Katrina or Haiti, Tennessee's 500-year flood was a huge disaster. And our neighbors deserve our attention and our help.
FWIW: your claim that "over 100 million houses were completely destroyed in Mississippi alone" is not quite accurate. The American Red Cross estimated approximately 275,000 homes were destroyed throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Thanks for the blog, FMP. I was a Hurricane Rita Refugee during the Katrina debacle. We did just as Nashvillers did, we picked up our bootstraps and went to work. Cameron Parish got hit by a Catagory 5 Hurricane, much powerful and did more extensive damage than Katrina, but since many of us Cajuns are self-sufficient, we did not BEG for Gubmint handouts, or smoke or drink-up the tax money we did get as New Orleans Katrina bums did. Plus the fact that the media ignored us ,too because we didn’t steal, loot, rape, or kill our fellow man like those animals in that God-forsaken town did. I only hope that next time it happens, that New Orleans will be wiped out from the face of the Earth. It is a haven of debauchery and vileness.