I thought I would post this blog I wrote for my company ServiceSource. Many posts to come, but this pretty much sums up what has been going on in Austin's and I's life as of lately.
On Sunday, May 2, around 8 AM I was laying on the couch watching TV with my husband and my two puppies.
It was raining really hard outside but we were safe inside and it was a typical weekend morning.
Around 10 AM our neighbors called us to tell us to go look at the Harpeth River which is two streets over from our house. We drove down to a field, where we normally take our puppies to play Frisbee. It was a lake. There was no sign of a field that ever existed there.
When we saw that we started to wonder
if our street was going to become flooded, but then we decided not to panic. By the time we drove back up our street there were lines of cars coming down from other parts of the neighborhood to see the Harpeth rising.
At that point we thought it might be a possibility that the houses by the river could become flooded.
We went inside and tried to do normal things, such as make lunch. Although, the power was out at this point so my husband began to heat up left over pizza on our grill.
As he was doing that I walked outside and saw around 20 men getting out of trucks and taking bags of sand to the houses right by the river. I started to get a little nervous.
At that moment I looked down the
street to my left and the water started filling the street. Then I looked to my right and it started filling the street from that side as well. There are two access points to the Harpeth River in our section of the neighborhood and both of them had started to completely overflow into our street.
I saw my neighbors starting to cry. I ran inside and told Austin we needed to help our neighbors by the river because their houses were going to start getting flooded. I was heartbroken at that point and it was not even a thought that it could get to our house.
We got on our boots and started walking towards the river to help and in a matter of seconds the water was up to our knees. The current got stronger and stronger. At that point I realized something was going to happen that was out of our control, something that sand bags could not do anything about.
I looked over at our house and saw the water swallowing our entire front yard. I told my husband I was going to go back into the house and get the puppies ready and grab anything I could find that we would need.
When I got back in the house I couldn’t think so I called my mom. She told me to grab my wedding dress and put it upstairs. And then she told me to grab my jewelry, which I had just organized into one container, so it was easy to grab. I saw my husband’s wallet and wedding ring on his bedside table and I grabbed those as well.
By the time I did those few things I told my mom on the phone that this was the last time I was going to see my husband and I’s first home this way. We had to get out and get out quick.
I hung up the phone and put the leashes on the dogs and Austin ran inside and helped me get out of the house. We were lucky in the fact that we were second to last on our side of the street and we were able to drive our cars out of our driveway by going through our neighbor’s front yard.
We drove up the street; it was pouring rain and lightning. I was in my car, my husband was in his. He stopped farther up the street where the water was not rushing in like the Ocoee River.
He turned off his car and ran back to our house. I jumped out of mine and yelled after him. He was going to get more things from our house.
I sprinted after him, wearing industrial boots a size too big and an oversized t-shirt that was soaking wet.
My husband’s life was more important than saving a piece of furniture.
By the time I caught up with my husband he was almost waist deep in water standing outside our front door. Neighbors cried and screamed around us. Men scrambled to put sandbags out, trying their hardest to fix a problem that was beyond their control.
I looked at our front porch and memories came into my mind of sitting on the porch with my husband and our beloved golden retriever who passed away last fall. Memories of watering my flowers, while my husband cut the grass, the beautiful things in life that we take for granted. In the second that I stood as far away from the rushing water screaming at my husband to come back to the car I realized that this was the most scared I have ever been in my life.
Austin told me to run fast and get out of the way because the water was coming right for me. He kept telling me to run and so I did. I sprinted back towards the car up the street. I was sobbing, soaking wet running in the hardest rain I have ever seen wondering if my husband was behind me.
When I got back to our cars one of our neighbors was sitting in her car sobbing. I stopped to console her. She was waiting on her friend that was still in her house and was not sure if she was going to make it out or not.
At that point my husband got back to the car. We started driving and then stopped up the street again. Where were we going to go?
There was no way we were going to get anywhere, the interstate was flooded and all the streets surrounding us were flooded. We decided to take our chances and start driving up as far as we could via interstate. We got off on the exit to my parents house, but all the roads were closed because of flooding, which thank God my parents house was okay, they were stranded for a few days.
We saw a motel and my husband got out to see if they had vacancy, but they did not. We sat in our cars for a minute watching the rain pour down, knowing every drop of that rain was adding to more and more flooding in our home.
We remembered our neighbors were going to their family’s house in Dickson, TN.
We gave them a call to see if we could possibly stay with them. They were gracious enough to let us. The interstate was only open from the exit we were at to our neighbor’s family’s house.
Once we got to the Gleason’s house we tried to calm ourselves down, trying to think of all the positive things that could have happened once we abandoned our home. Some more of our neighbors ended up at the Gleason’s because they were trapped as well.
We tried to stay positive.
Around 7 PM the news was on and we were watching it trying to get our minds off of what was happening close to home and realizing Nashville was becoming swallowed by water.
We were watching the news and all of the sudden the helicopter with a camera was over our neighborhood then right on top of our houses.
We could only see our roofs. We all cried.
I have always had a great fear of fire, but never did I think this was a possibility.
The next morning some neighbors that stayed farther up in our neighborhood walked down to our section to see if we could get in our houses. We were shocked to find out that the water had actually gone down and we could get in.
From the adrenaline of the shock and the trauma we started getting really anxious to go back to our homes.
That morning, Mary Bright sent me a text message to see if ServiceSource was going to be open. I sent her a text back and told her I was not sure because my home was flooded and I had not heard anything about work.
Around 10 AM we headed for our home to assess the damage.
When we drove into the neighborhood there were cars everywhere. Our quiet and sweet neighborhood was surrounded with volunteers, onlookers, and what we were dreading, potential looters.
We drove up to our house where we saw our neighbors across the street putting their dining room table out on their lawn. The memories came “flooding” in. We had spent many a nights sitting at that table laughing and sharing stories. Then I saw their couch, their brand new couch they were so proud of. I remember going over and seeing it for the first time. I was heartbroken.
My husband went into our home first. I followed behind. When I walked in the floors were wet and dirty and it smelled awful. Our dog’s crates were in opposite rooms from where they normally sat. Our furniture that I had spent many a night dreaming of purchasing and decorating, sat soaked and ruined. I was in shock until I walked in the bedroom and saw my laundry sitting on the bed from where I had started to fold it that Sunday morning. The crisp white and blue bedding was brown from the water. I screamed. I had to walk out of the house because being in there was too hard.
At that point, Mary Bright sent me another text message to see if we needed a water pump. I told her we didn’t need a pump but maybe some help because my family was trapped in their home and my husband’s mother was on her way. We needed immediate help. We stood outside in shock just staring at all of our losses. Mary sent me a message saying some SSI co-workers were on there way to our home. I was so relieved. Thinking around 5 or so people would show up.
My mother in law was able to make it out to our house and she started helping with all she could. We opened the cabinets up and I saw all of the gifts we had received at our wedding showers sitting in muddy water. I couldn’t be in the house.
I was walking around not really knowing what to do and then all of a sudden ServiceSource co-workers started pouring into our home. People that I have never even had a conversation with before were tearing out drywall and boxing up anything salvageable.
I was overwhelmed with gratitude and joy. My mother in law was able to leave and take our dogs, Wyatt and Milton, home with her into air conditioning. It was hot and sunny that Monday, completely opposite from the day before.
SSI co-workers were all over our house and yard. Our neighbors were asking where they all came from and I was so proud to say that they were all my co-workers.
Some girls helped me sort through clothes and items that had to be thrown away and then some got bags of dry cleaning together.
Co-workers piled their cars up with clothes and anything they could find that could maybe be saved.
SSI brought a U-Haul to our house and the guys started loading our soaking wet furniture into it to take it to the dump. That alone was a blessing. I cannot imagine having to load that furniture up and throw it away.
It was so overwhelming, but we were three days ahead all of our neighbors.
After everyone left our house around eight that night, my husband and I stood on our porch with a close friend and wondered what we were going to do with our belongings that we were so thankful to be able to save, but were sitting in our unlocked home. China, pictures, my husband’s desktop computer, Christmas decorations, and the list goes on. It wasn’t just the looting we were afraid of, there was the potential that when the power came back on that our houses could catch on fire or that some people would just start fires in their homes to see if insurance would pay. There were so many fearful thoughts running through our minds.
SSI came back on Wednesday that week and piled all of our salvageable items into a U-Haul and took it to storage. In all the hours that I have spent call shadowing and swapping sales techniques with my co-workers, I never would have pictured working together on the largest project I have ever had to tackle. But they were right there by my side.
My husband and I were so grateful because we were able to get everything that was left out of the house and were able to focus on what was next.
I am still overwhelmed and will always be overwhelmed with joy and gratitude towards ServiceSource and the people that make the Nashville branch what it is.
Even though there are so many things going on, I am so proud to walk into this office at ServiceSource and know that the hearts of my co-workers are so giving and so sacrificing.
I honestly have never seen or experienced such willingness to help.
My husband and I are living with my parents right now and working on rebuilding our home. We have begun a new chapter and a new journey in our lives.
It was raining really hard outside but we were safe inside and it was a typical weekend morning.
Around 10 AM our neighbors called us to tell us to go look at the Harpeth River which is two streets over from our house. We drove down to a field, where we normally take our puppies to play Frisbee. It was a lake. There was no sign of a field that ever existed there.
When we saw that we started to wonder
if our street was going to become flooded, but then we decided not to panic. By the time we drove back up our street there were lines of cars coming down from other parts of the neighborhood to see the Harpeth rising.At that point we thought it might be a possibility that the houses by the river could become flooded.
We went inside and tried to do normal things, such as make lunch. Although, the power was out at this point so my husband began to heat up left over pizza on our grill.
As he was doing that I walked outside and saw around 20 men getting out of trucks and taking bags of sand to the houses right by the river. I started to get a little nervous.
At that moment I looked down the
street to my left and the water started filling the street. Then I looked to my right and it started filling the street from that side as well. There are two access points to the Harpeth River in our section of the neighborhood and both of them had started to completely overflow into our street.I saw my neighbors starting to cry. I ran inside and told Austin we needed to help our neighbors by the river because their houses were going to start getting flooded. I was heartbroken at that point and it was not even a thought that it could get to our house.
We got on our boots and started walking towards the river to help and in a matter of seconds the water was up to our knees. The current got stronger and stronger. At that point I realized something was going to happen that was out of our control, something that sand bags could not do anything about.
I looked over at our house and saw the water swallowing our entire front yard. I told my husband I was going to go back into the house and get the puppies ready and grab anything I could find that we would need.
When I got back in the house I couldn’t think so I called my mom. She told me to grab my wedding dress and put it upstairs. And then she told me to grab my jewelry, which I had just organized into one container, so it was easy to grab. I saw my husband’s wallet and wedding ring on his bedside table and I grabbed those as well.
By the time I did those few things I told my mom on the phone that this was the last time I was going to see my husband and I’s first home this way. We had to get out and get out quick.
I hung up the phone and put the leashes on the dogs and Austin ran inside and helped me get out of the house. We were lucky in the fact that we were second to last on our side of the street and we were able to drive our cars out of our driveway by going through our neighbor’s front yard.
We drove up the street; it was pouring rain and lightning. I was in my car, my husband was in his. He stopped farther up the street where the water was not rushing in like the Ocoee River.
He turned off his car and ran back to our house. I jumped out of mine and yelled after him. He was going to get more things from our house.
I sprinted after him, wearing industrial boots a size too big and an oversized t-shirt that was soaking wet.
My husband’s life was more important than saving a piece of furniture.
By the time I caught up with my husband he was almost waist deep in water standing outside our front door. Neighbors cried and screamed around us. Men scrambled to put sandbags out, trying their hardest to fix a problem that was beyond their control.
I looked at our front porch and memories came into my mind of sitting on the porch with my husband and our beloved golden retriever who passed away last fall. Memories of watering my flowers, while my husband cut the grass, the beautiful things in life that we take for granted. In the second that I stood as far away from the rushing water screaming at my husband to come back to the car I realized that this was the most scared I have ever been in my life.
Austin told me to run fast and get out of the way because the water was coming right for me. He kept telling me to run and so I did. I sprinted back towards the car up the street. I was sobbing, soaking wet running in the hardest rain I have ever seen wondering if my husband was behind me.
When I got back to our cars one of our neighbors was sitting in her car sobbing. I stopped to console her. She was waiting on her friend that was still in her house and was not sure if she was going to make it out or not.
At that point my husband got back to the car. We started driving and then stopped up the street again. Where were we going to go?
There was no way we were going to get anywhere, the interstate was flooded and all the streets surrounding us were flooded. We decided to take our chances and start driving up as far as we could via interstate. We got off on the exit to my parents house, but all the roads were closed because of flooding, which thank God my parents house was okay, they were stranded for a few days.
We saw a motel and my husband got out to see if they had vacancy, but they did not. We sat in our cars for a minute watching the rain pour down, knowing every drop of that rain was adding to more and more flooding in our home.
We remembered our neighbors were going to their family’s house in Dickson, TN.
We gave them a call to see if we could possibly stay with them. They were gracious enough to let us. The interstate was only open from the exit we were at to our neighbor’s family’s house.
Once we got to the Gleason’s house we tried to calm ourselves down, trying to think of all the positive things that could have happened once we abandoned our home. Some more of our neighbors ended up at the Gleason’s because they were trapped as well.
We tried to stay positive.
Around 7 PM the news was on and we were watching it trying to get our minds off of what was happening close to home and realizing Nashville was becoming swallowed by water.
We were watching the news and all of the sudden the helicopter with a camera was over our neighborhood then right on top of our houses.
We could only see our roofs. We all cried.
I have always had a great fear of fire, but never did I think this was a possibility.
The next morning some neighbors that stayed farther up in our neighborhood walked down to our section to see if we could get in our houses. We were shocked to find out that the water had actually gone down and we could get in.
From the adrenaline of the shock and the trauma we started getting really anxious to go back to our homes.
That morning, Mary Bright sent me a text message to see if ServiceSource was going to be open. I sent her a text back and told her I was not sure because my home was flooded and I had not heard anything about work.
Around 10 AM we headed for our home to assess the damage.
When we drove into the neighborhood there were cars everywhere. Our quiet and sweet neighborhood was surrounded with volunteers, onlookers, and what we were dreading, potential looters.
We drove up to our house where we saw our neighbors across the street putting their dining room table out on their lawn. The memories came “flooding” in. We had spent many a nights sitting at that table laughing and sharing stories. Then I saw their couch, their brand new couch they were so proud of. I remember going over and seeing it for the first time. I was heartbroken.
My husband went into our home first. I followed behind. When I walked in the floors were wet and dirty and it smelled awful. Our dog’s crates were in opposite rooms from where they normally sat. Our furniture that I had spent many a night dreaming of purchasing and decorating, sat soaked and ruined. I was in shock until I walked in the bedroom and saw my laundry sitting on the bed from where I had started to fold it that Sunday morning. The crisp white and blue bedding was brown from the water. I screamed. I had to walk out of the house because being in there was too hard.
At that point, Mary Bright sent me another text message to see if we needed a water pump. I told her we didn’t need a pump but maybe some help because my family was trapped in their home and my husband’s mother was on her way. We needed immediate help. We stood outside in shock just staring at all of our losses. Mary sent me a message saying some SSI co-workers were on there way to our home. I was so relieved. Thinking around 5 or so people would show up.
My mother in law was able to make it out to our house and she started helping with all she could. We opened the cabinets up and I saw all of the gifts we had received at our wedding showers sitting in muddy water. I couldn’t be in the house.
I was walking around not really knowing what to do and then all of a sudden ServiceSource co-workers started pouring into our home. People that I have never even had a conversation with before were tearing out drywall and boxing up anything salvageable.
I was overwhelmed with gratitude and joy. My mother in law was able to leave and take our dogs, Wyatt and Milton, home with her into air conditioning. It was hot and sunny that Monday, completely opposite from the day before.
SSI co-workers were all over our house and yard. Our neighbors were asking where they all came from and I was so proud to say that they were all my co-workers.
Some girls helped me sort through clothes and items that had to be thrown away and then some got bags of dry cleaning together.
Co-workers piled their cars up with clothes and anything they could find that could maybe be saved.
SSI brought a U-Haul to our house and the guys started loading our soaking wet furniture into it to take it to the dump. That alone was a blessing. I cannot imagine having to load that furniture up and throw it away.
It was so overwhelming, but we were three days ahead all of our neighbors.
After everyone left our house around eight that night, my husband and I stood on our porch with a close friend and wondered what we were going to do with our belongings that we were so thankful to be able to save, but were sitting in our unlocked home. China, pictures, my husband’s desktop computer, Christmas decorations, and the list goes on. It wasn’t just the looting we were afraid of, there was the potential that when the power came back on that our houses could catch on fire or that some people would just start fires in their homes to see if insurance would pay. There were so many fearful thoughts running through our minds.
SSI came back on Wednesday that week and piled all of our salvageable items into a U-Haul and took it to storage. In all the hours that I have spent call shadowing and swapping sales techniques with my co-workers, I never would have pictured working together on the largest project I have ever had to tackle. But they were right there by my side.
My husband and I were so grateful because we were able to get everything that was left out of the house and were able to focus on what was next.
I am still overwhelmed and will always be overwhelmed with joy and gratitude towards ServiceSource and the people that make the Nashville branch what it is.
Even though there are so many things going on, I am so proud to walk into this office at ServiceSource and know that the hearts of my co-workers are so giving and so sacrificing.
I honestly have never seen or experienced such willingness to help.
My husband and I are living with my parents right now and working on rebuilding our home. We have begun a new chapter and a new journey in our lives.
What a great testimony. Your co-workers sound like awesome people. I am so glad they are there to help. Wish we were closer. I love you and am looking forward to reading about your progress! ;)
ReplyDelete