One Monday morning last month, I arrived at work to find that torrential downpours in the southeast had flooded the Tennessee capital of Nashville over the weekend.  Apparently the Cumberland River rose to 13 feet above flood stage, eventually causing an estimated $1 Billion dollars in damage and killing more than 30 people.  This flood had the potential to become one of the worst natural disasters in US history.  While the rest of the country was focused on the Times Square Bomber, The Oil Spill in the Gulf (which was new at the time) and the escapades of Jesse James and heartbreak of Sandra Bullock, I was on my way to Nashville. 

Upon arrival, it was obvious that this city had never seen anything quite like this before.  The damage was incredible and plainly visible from my window seat in the airplane as we descended into the city.  Once on the ground, it was difficult to navigate through city streets.  There were several reasons for this.  First and foremost, I am not a good driver, secondly, everything was flooded.  My GPS would instruct me to make a left turn but the water in the roadway had other ideas.  I can’t wait for a GPS system that will be able to access real-time satellite images and direct me around closed or otherwise impassable roads.  It’s coming…sooner or later but it’s coming.   Eventually I was able to gauge what areas of the city had been hit the hardest and focused my efforts on a few large scale commercial properties.  At that point I summoned the Calvary only to find that it  was already on the way…..the trigger had been pulled and our CAT team was mobilized and heading my way.  Thankfully I had secured some work just prior to their arrival; otherwise, my first conversation with the General would not have been pleasant. 

We immediately began the process of mitigating the damage to the contracted properties and after a week or so, something had become quite obvious to me.  I now knew why Tennessee was called the volunteer state.  Every time I turned around, I saw people willing to help.  These people did not sit back and engage in their own pity party.  They banded together in a way that I had not seen.  They did not place blame for what had happened to their community, they did not make unrealistic demands of the government, and they did not allow themselves to be beaten by this natural disaster.  What they did do was band together as a community, accept what had happened to them and then began to help one another recover.  They were also very appreciative of those who came from other parts of the country to lend a hand.  I was told “thank you” by more people than I can remember but I do remember one guy in particular.  His name was Gus. He was a cook in a hamburger joint on Broadway.  I strolled in off the street at about 11:00pm one night and ordered 65 cheeseburgers.  Not only did Gus, make our cheeseburgers, he helped me carry them back to the jobsite, along with drinks and fries.  He knew we had come to help from out of town, maybe my accent gave me away, and he said it was least he could do….then he shook my hand as he thanked me and I assume went back to working the grill until some ungodly hour of the early morning.    Gus was typical of the friendly attitude we experienced from the people of Nashville.  I wish them nothing but the best in their continued recovery because it’s going to be awhile.