Our volunteering efforts for Saturday were a huge success. We loaded the van with hundreds of cases of water, sandwiches, cookies, toiletries, cleaning supplies and stuffed animals for the kiddos.
We arrived in River Plantation subdivision around nine thirty Saturday morning. This subdivision is located in Bellevue, TN and is one of the hardest hit areas from flood waters. The main entrance to the subdivision was barricaded off by metro police, ensuring that the traffic was not there to rubber neck. The devastation is incomprehensible. The streets are lined with worldly possessions, antiques, furniture, insulation, drywall, mattresses, appliances, clothes and piles of debris.
Every single home in this area had a minimum of three feet of water in their homes, and several had up to eight feet of water. The debris lined streets go on for more than two miles. The smell of sewage, wet drywall, wet rubble, and dampness is indescribable and unforgettable. Helicopters buzzing in the air, police directing traffic, Green Serve pro company trucks parked everywhere for flood relief support, and crime scene yellow tape strung everywhere. I felt like I was driving in slow motion into the twilight zone.
As we drove into the first neighborhood the carports were lined with cars destroyed by flood waters, filled with left over condensation, mud and garbage. Clothes hanging out to dry, boxes with the few remaining items that could be salvaged and wet waste everywhere.
This family had the courage and the pride to hang their mud stained flag a top their dilapidated carport, showing their strength and TN spirit to all. Nothin like the south, ya’ll!
