For what ever reason, this is showing up as a private post.  Go figure.

Hello Deacon,

So sorry I missed this till now. I look through these forums and try to find anything I can be involved with, a lot of things I just don't know about or  really am not interested to comment on. Many of the subjects here veer into other areas that I have no involvement in and I don't participate if it's not something I deal with personally or have first hand knowledge of.

Obviously the Tornado was a huge deal here, but almost as soon as it happened, we were hit by the Cornovirus meltdown, and that has affected everyone. Like everyone, the City is shut down, and I have not been to the damaged areas, but I know most of it has been addressed. I can tell you a bit about what happened. It hit on a Tuesday night, March 2nd.  To be honest, most of us slept through it on our side of town because it hit the other side, about 15-20 miles away. On our side, the West End of town, we didn't even get rain or winds. 
Our area, and a lot of Nashville are in sort of a bowl, surrounded by hills, and most often Tornadoes don't hit hilly areas, seemingly hugging the ground on flat areas. 

The path of the tornado was almost identical to the one in 1998, where I was VERY MUCH IN THE MIDDLE OF. That one started about 6 blocks from where I was living and when it really hit, I was about 1000 feet from where the only person who was killed in that one, was killed. I was in a huge all metal cooler of a Grocery Store, with my daughter. So I saw that one up close and personal. There was another one back in the 60's I believe and we often get some pretty heavy storms, around the spring, and they all seem to hit in the same area. Our own "TORNADO ALLEY."

This one struck the other part of town and most of us didn't see it till we got up. Then it was chaos for a little bit. But the thing about Nashville and Tenn. is that it is not called "THE VOLUNTEER STATE" for nothing. Almost immediately people went into action. There were hundreds of volunteers on that side of town, with chainsaws, trucks, tools and people clearing out neighborhoods, checking houses, etc. A lot of first responders, police, fire and medical people were on the scene. By morning the power crews were out restoring power. They had an overall damage list before the end of the second day. They had hoped for and expected around 3000 people to help out. Within three days there were 18,000 people in the affected areas. They had the power back on for about 90% of the affected area by the end of the week. Pretty impressive. 

And enormous amounts of people helped with food, power, all kinds of things and helping the first responders. A lot of calls were sent out for supplies, food, water, clothes, etc. My next door neighbor is a teacher, and his high school was a collection area. I cleaned out all kinds of things I had around the house, emergency supplies, food and clothes. And then I hit the stores. Pretty much everyone had the same idea, with lines at Walmart, Costco, Target ranging around the block. And so many things were already gone. Hand sanitizer, alcohol, wet wipes, etc. were gone LONG BEFORE the Cov.19 thing hit. 

By the end of the second day, my neighbors school was overflowing and they didn't have any room for any more supplies. That was the truth all over town. Most collection areas were filled up, and other ones were being opened. They asked to hold all clothes donations due to no room and if you have no house, you don't need a bunch of clothes or large items with no place to store them. In the middle of all this, while making trips for supplies, I got into a fender bender wreck when a car in front of me slammed on his breaks, causing me to slam into him. No injuries, but I would come to find out ALL repair facilities were backed up because of all the tornado damages and insurance claims going on. Took me a month to get my car fixed. And that was DURING the beginning of the Covid 19 lockdown. Overall, pretty smooth. 

By the end of the week, it was pretty much semi-normal. People were finding housing, insurance was out in force, all dead and injured were accounted for, almost the same areas hit in 1998 were devastated again and the tornado had enormous long and wide devastation. But pretty much every one I knew was unneffected. But the help was enormous and just like the other tornado, the 2010 flood and all emergencies, this community really helps out. And of course, the musicians shifted into high gear doing benefits all over town. Dolly Parton donated one million dollars and there is really no telling how many millions were raised privately. A lot of stars will give money but do it annonymosly, so they are not hit up for money constantly. But you can guess Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, and others are among the first to pony up. Many of the stars were out helping clean up the areas.

Then, two weeks later we were locked down by the Covid.19. 

So I can't really tell you what has happened since then. About all that is talked about is the current crisis and now trying to get the cities back open. We've been hit by that too, but things are starting to ease up. It's getting under control, we've had some cases and about 166 deaths, but overall, we are handling it well. Climbing out of the hole.

If there were problems, you would hear about them everywhere. The press loves to do that, "If it bleeds, it leads" but when things are going smoothly and well, you don't hear about that. I'd say, Nashville and the State of Tenn. Pretty much takes care of itself. 

That's about all I can tell you for now. Thanks for the concern and I hope you are well.

MAB

Hello Marc, So glad to hear you are ok, and happy you weren't much affected (at least by the tornado).  I know Nashville was shut down early on because of the covid-19, I'm sure it has made things much harder there, it's a new world we live in now.  Thank you for letting us know all is ok, best wishes,

Speak soon

Posted by: @deacon

For what ever reason, this is showing up as a private post.  Go figure.

Someone must be in "Time Out" Lol... probably me  🙂 

Yea, Corona plus the weather in the south has certainly put the kibosh on anyone's party plans! However, it's easy to keep things in perspective when you consider NYC... New Norm? I certainly hope not!