We Are Nashville

Faces of the Flood

On Saturday, May 1 and Sunday May 2, Nashville got 13.53 inches of rain. Our average for the months of May, June, and July are 12.92 inches. In the first two days of May we got more than our average for 3 months, or 28% of out yearly average. The Cumberland River, which runs through downtown Nashville, crested at 52 feet on May 3, 12 feet above flood stage.

I had never seen so much water fall in my life on Saturday. That is until Sunday. I awoke Sunday to find my basement flooded with 8 inches of water. Fortunately my air conditioner was the only fatality. I called in to work (like many photographers, I have [had] another job to help me support my photography habit) and was told that they had closed the mall and not to bother coming in. By now I knew this was not your normal spring shower so I set out with my camera to start documenting the event. I went out and shot some local scenes at Shelby Park and downtown. The river was incredibly swollen but I hadn't seen anything yet.

The creeks and tributaries seemed to crest first. I live on a hill and the flooding I had in my basement was from a creek in my backyard. As the tributaries flooded on Saturday and Sunday, they flowed downhill into the bigger rivers like the Duck, the Harpeth, and of course, the Cumberland. By Sunday evening, low areas by the Cumberland started to flood. Slowly at first and then, without warning, several feet in an hour. The Army Corps of Engineers which maintains the dams on the river was forced to open the floodgates on several dams. They did this to prevent loosing the control rooms to flood waters and thus saving the dams. Unfortunately no on in Nashville knew this was happening. Water that was was at ankle level on minute was at people's knees within minutes, over their heads within a couple of hours. Being on high ground as I was, I didn't even realize this was happening. Two of my friends on lower ground spent 5 hours evacuating people by kayak that evening.

On Monday, roads all over town were closed and reports were starting to come in about how bad the flood actually was. I went downtown again and shot some of the same scenes I had shot on Sunday, minus the rain. The waters of the Cumberland were still rising and didn't crest until later that evening. I drove to Opry Mills because I had heard that the Opryland hotel and the mall where I worked were flooded. Opryland had evacuated 1500 guests the night before. I arrived to find that I couldn't get within a half mile of the hotel or mall. Coast Guard crews were unloading flat bottom boats to initiate rescues. I saw wooden statue of Elvis floating on Macgavick Pike. I heard a report that they needed volunteers to fill sandbags at Metro Center. I got in my car and headed over there to help. I spent about an hour and a half looking for a route there but every road I tried was flooded. On Tuesday I was still in shock but didn't really know how to help. I went back to the Opryland area to see if the waters had receded and to see if I could find out anything about my retail job. No luck. I went home and tried to clean some of the stuff in my basement.

By Wednesday I had found a group called Hands On Nashville. They helped thousands of volunteers get to areas that needed help. Wednesday afternoon I spent several hours in the Pennington Bend area of Nashville helping people pull ruined items out of their houses, emptying refrigerators of items that had been warming since Saturday, trying to save family photos, and ripping up flooded carpet and carpet padding. Nasty work to be sure. It felt good to help these people but I thought I could do more. I had my camera with me and I went back into the area I had just worked to take pictures of the flood victims. There were so many areas of town that were not affected that did not know how bad the situation was. I thought that I could help by putting a face to all of this tragedy. I went back and photographed some of the victims in their gutted houses or among the things they had lost. I spent Thursday taking care of some of my own things, but went back out on Friday to Bellvue and East Nashville to shoot some more portraits of people that have lost so much more than me (I did lose my job at Opry Mills and my beloved mountain bike).

I have received a lot of good feedback on this project and hope to continue this week in other areas of town. Here are some of the portraits that I have shot. We Are Nashville, Faces of the Flood: