Here’s The Deal: Post-Flood Progress Report [Flood 2010]

We’re finally starting to wrap our minds around the damage to our city as best we can, and we continue to have our minds blown at the progress that’s being made on the clean-up each day. We’ve got quite the mess on our hands and we’re dealing with it, because that’s what we do. We’ve been getting a ton of questions from you guys by email and Twitter, so we wanted to give you an update on, well, everything we could find. For the more official information, check TEMA’s latest update as well as this morning’s press release from Metro.

Landmarks We Love:

Water:

  • Two counties are still under mandatory water orders: Davidson and Williamson (that includes you, Franklin and Brentwood). Until further notice, we’re supposed to be cutting back on our water usage by not using it for much else besides drinking. As of Friday morning, our reserves were back up to 56% from the rock-bottom 37% earlier this week In Davidson, our second treatment facility is still down for the count and officials have no idea when it’ll be fixed. So! If you see grass-watering or car-washing (and you know for sure that they’re not using repurposed floodwater,) call 615-862-4600 to report it to Metro. The Tennessean has put together a great collection of resources on water conservation.
  • Metro is handing out the non-drinkable water for cleaning, watering yards, and other stuff that doesn’t require it to be potable. More information about that here.
  • Our drinking water is still completely safe. Don’t believe what you hear.

Damage:

Federal Assistance:

  • There are 30 42 counties in Tennessee that have been declared disaster areas by the Federal Government and the number keeps rising. Those counties are: Benton, Carroll, Cheatham, Chester, Clay, Crockett, Davidson, Decatur, DeKalb, Dickson, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lucas, Macon, Madison, Maury, McNairy, Montgomery, Obion, Perry, Robertson, Rutherford, Shelby, Smith Stewart, Sumner, Tipton, Trousdale, Wayne, Williamson and Wilson
  • People in these counties are eligible to apply for FEMA assistance by visiting DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-3362 (1-800-462-7585 for the hearing and speech impaired).

Transportation/Road Closures:

  • All major interstates and highways are open. TDOT has inspected all the major bridges and everything is fine. They’re more concerned about the bridges on rural county roads.
  • Nashville MTA buses are running on a limited Sunday/Holiday schedule. Information for this weekend’s routes can be found here and those planning to ride on Monday should check out next week’s update. Until the buses are back on a normal schedule, most fares will be free.
  • The Music City Star commuter train will start running a limited route on Monday.
  • Oh and according to TEMA, we all get to drive in the HOV lanes of metropolitan areas for the next 30 days no matter how many folks (or how few, really) we have in the car. That’s exciting, right?

Shelters:

Power Outages:

  • The number of folks without power has dropped from 150,000 to 3,300. Party!

Photo by Malcolm MacGregor.