Lunch Break: Nashville’s 1,000 year flood
To give us a break from the daily grind…
According to Knoxvillebiz.com, “[T]he Army Corps of Engineers now describes [the weekend storm in Nashville] as a 1,000-year flood event.”
My friend Rhonda Robinson, in an article picked up by Rush Limbaugh yesterday, noted that if you haven’t heard much about this flood, it’s because the leftist media would rather focus on man made disasters such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or on disasters that can in part be blamed on right-controlled government with left-endorsed victims, such as Hurricane Katrina. I’d add: or to rationalize how America could provoke the Times Square bomber to attempt such a thing.
On May 5 the Boston Globe ran a 38-photo retrospective on the Nashville flood. It’s worth viewing to help understand the flood’s magnitude.
Here’s one of the photos, with the caption, “The General Jackson Showboat floats in the Cumberland River as the Opry Mills shopping complex stands in floodwaters from the Cumberland River in Nashville… on… May 3 (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey).” Click to enlarge…
Erick Erickson on RedState.com noted yesterday at 11a: “Barack Obama has still, to my knowledge, not spoken personally of the events in TN or attempted to visit – an act that would have gotten George W. Bush savagely attacked by the press, Democrats, and Congress.”
Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I am so proud of the way Tennesseans are acting. We are not called the volunteer state for nothing. Everyone is pitching in to help others and no one is complaining about not getting help. Yes we are being ignored and not one public word from Obama.
but the spirit of the people is wonderful.
So sorry about the devastation the Nashville flooding has caused.
Susie, from what I’ve seen in the news reports, I have no doubt the Nashvillians will band together and the city will recover. My impression from a report yesterday on CNN is that the people of Nashville who were interviewed do not want excessive news coverage so as not to discourage the tourism industry which is so important to their economy. Perhaps this is why Pres. Obama hasn’t shown up. Just speculating…
God Bless you guys down there Susie.
In the absence of media coverage, can you be our eyes and ears? What are the conditions and the needs? What is the shelter situation like? How can he rest of us help?
Obviously I’m not Susie, but to answer your question Dr Nadal, donations to the Red Cross, Second Harvest Food Bank (who lost about 75,000$ worth of food in the flood), and the Salvation Army are all in need of monetary donations. http://www.wsmv.com/news/23448373/detail.html
More than that we need you to book a plane, train, or automobile ticket, make a reservation at a Nashville hotel, eat at one of our amazing restaurants, and spend some time with us.
Erik Erickson joins others in the right wing media in not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. Obama actually spoke personally about the flooding at least three days ago, according to AFP:
Obama said he was closely monitoring the crisis brought about by the “devastating storms,” and dispatched his Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief Craig Fugate to Tennessee for a firsthand look at the flooding.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with every American who has been impacted by the severe weather and flooding in the southeast, and our deepest condolences go out to those who have lost loved ones,” Obama said in a statement.
It’s also been reported — at foxnews.com, among others — that Obama spoke with Gov. Bresden on Monday, and Bresden is quoted as saying, “I’ve never seen this kind of response … and we’ve had our share of tornadoes and so forth. …FEMA and the White House could not have been more helpful in this thing.” (More of Bresden’s comments can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/06/ground-raindrops-started-falling)
…if you haven’t heard much about this flood, it’s because the leftist media would rather focus on man made disasters such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico…
I agree that the flooding should have received more coverage this week, but I want to note that the Gulf oil spill is a disaster of huge proportions, one that we will still be cleaning up decades from now if the Exxon Valdez is any guide. The New York Times reported this week that recovery from the Exxon spill is still going on and “may not have an end date.” The Gulf spill is a disaster we need to be talking about, especially because it shows graphically and horrifically the consequences of deep water drilling.
Truly devastating. Was glad to see FEMA respond so quickly. 27 counties with aid and more expected.
LOL @ the lies. Even Faux News covered Obama’s statement about the flooding. Sorry the facts don’t suit your agenda on this one…
Tennesseans have been terrific at pitching in to help one another. But we are not on our own. FEMA officials were on the ground in Tennessee before the flood hit. When Governor Bredesen requested federal disaster relief on Monday, the President took immediate action, triggering the release of federal funds to the disaster areas. When my neighbor filed his FEMA claim, a FEMA rep was out the next morning. FEMA administrator Craig Fugate has met with the governor and mayor to support recovery while also assessing damages in other states such as Mississippi,Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky Secretary Napolitano surveyed damage this week. We are also being visited by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Do we really need the President here for a photo op?…he’s getting the work done from the White House. That’s what counts.
Yeah, the above comment about the left-wing media is pretty laughable. Not least because the media isn’t left-wing–you probably think so because you are obsessed with pro-life stuff, therefore anyone who doesn’t share your obsessions is some kind of commie. As noted above, Obama did comment on Nashville’s flood and declared a lot of the state a disaster area and so forth, plus I see a lot of FEMA presence here, and that’s the Big Government you right-wingers rail against all the time.
As for the difference between the natural disaster of this flood and the oil spill, it’s pretty significant. Man-made disasters caused by the corruption of the “Big Government” which is supposed to oversee such things (and which the Bush administration helped create with its cozy ties to the oil industry–and yeah, Obama shares some of the blame for the loosening of restrictions here) are in a different league than the rain, which not even Republicans can control. What happened in New Orleans, by the way, was also a direct result of the poor government of the last decades of nutjob Republican rule–had the Corps of Engineers done their job down there and shored up the levees, and any sensible person who knows anything about New Orleans could have seen, the disaster down there would have been far less severe.
But that’s the difference between a bunch of black people down there in a city that people in this part of the world think is Bourbon Street and a mixed drink and Nashville, home of all that country music for white folks. And now, the oil spill is once again threatening the unique city of New Orleans, which is irreplaceable. So the “left-wing” media is sorta doing its job by talking about the BP oil spill, which is a whole lot bigger in scope than our flood. Which is not to say what happened to us isn’t important, only that it’s a big old world out there.