Nancy Nickey Curran Oil and Pastel Portraiture: May 2010

They are calling it the 100 year flood. Nashville was declared a state of emergency. Franklin had a dusk to dawn curfew.

We left Memphis Thursday night for a trip up to Franklin Tn to attend the Brownland Farms horse show. The Harpeth River flows straight through the town and this weekend overflowed.

We knew rain was in the forecast. Liza has ridden in the rain before. Her friend Seymour said Lark, her seasoned pony, was good at "riding through the slop."

The weather was gorgeous on Friday. Liza was there in time to check out the showgrounds and shop at a few vendor booths with friends before tacking up Lark for schooling classes. She won 1st and 2nd Place ribbons and ended up with Reserve Champion. She was all smiles and hopeful for a fun show weekend.

There was a show alright. But not the kind we were expecting!

Severe weather caused Brownland to cancel the weekend activities.

We decided to stay in Franklin rather than go home because Memphis was supposed to be hit much harder. The tornado sirens there were already sounding.

Water was creeping up to the barn and gathering all around us. We never dreamed how much more was to come. At this point the rain was fun and we were glad to have an adventure!

  We took a few pictures and went into Nashville for lunch. We came back to Franklin around 3 PM and the showgrounds were just beginning to flood.

We began to realize as we made our way back to our hotel the situation was getting dangerous. Cars were washing away and backyards were turning into lakes. 120 cars were abandoned on one road alone.

Things were getting out of hand.

Police were beginning to block roads everywhere.

We turned on the tv and the coverage showed the devastation. Nashville was in a state of emergency.
Franklin was just as bad and getting worse.

Saturday night Brownland Farms Security moved the horses several times to stalls on higher ground. The horses needed to be evacuated-quickly.

  Police were allowing only heavy Semi's to move through the closed roads in order to get to the barns.

At 3:00 AM our drivers headed for Memphis after salvaging floating trunks waterlogged gear and wet horses. They were unable to find an open route out of town and after five hours had no choice but to go back to the Franklin Ag Center. They unloaded tired horses at 8 AM.

On Sunday more rain came and waters rose. The Cumberland River was at 50 feet and rising. Downtown began to flood. Churches everywhere were filled to capacity with stranded motorists.

The mayor asked everyone to stay off the roads as they had their hands full with rescues. Many homes were completely flooded. It was a very scary situation. The Opryland hotel was under six feet of water and had to be evacuated. More and more areas were flooding.

Downtown was awash.

On Monday the sun came out again.

We went to Nashville and visited with my son Daivd, who was in the middle of Vanderbilt exams. However they were cancelled due to flooding. What luck!!!!

    What a crazy weekend.

We met up with our fellow weary horseshow travellers at The Germantown Horse Show Fairgrounds. As everyone cleaned and assessed their waterlogged tack each recanted their own tale of the weekend. We all listened to each others stories as we remembered this whole harrowing ordeal of a weekend. Small things seemingly important on Friday suddenly in the wake of such an event didn't matter.

Many equestrians good naturedly bemoaned missing items. Lists were made of needed items for the upcoming show this weekend, "Memphis in May".

After all, The show must go on!

A Pretty Day Friday