Downtown Clarksville is an Island

As I have been diligently heeding the warnings to stay at home, chaos is ensuing around me.  The flooding that has taken place in middle Tennessee is both unprecedented and catastrophic.  It is unimaginable just how many people are suffering right now...Many thousands of homes and businesses have been completely destroyed.  My stomach sinks each time I see a place on the news, that we have frequented over the years, saturated by the dirty floodwater.  One in particular is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, where Nick and I celebrated our engagement.  It is now filled with 10 feet of floodwater and it's still rising.

Locally, the Cumberland and Red Rivers are also still on the rise...The last that I've heard on the news, downtown Clarksville is surrounded by water and there is only one very congested road out of the area.  The water waste management plant is at capacity, and raw sewage will soon be diverted into the Cumberland River.  We are therefore being called on to conserve water.  Our drinking water is still safe, but because rumors have been running rampant, there was a run on bottled water earlier today.  The news stations' 24 hour coverage are so overwhelmed by the devastation in just the Nashville area, many of the surrounding counties are not being reported on at all.  It is unbelievable to watch people driving boats in place of cars.

All of us Horn girls and our home are safe and dry and are not threatened by the floodwater at all.  The grade of our land has proven beneficial.  I took my girls for a walk a little earlier and was so dismayed to see the extent of the floodwater in the field behind the street behind and parallel to ours.  Instead of a grassy expanse, it is now a very very large pond.  There is water as far as I can see.  The water has filled the backyards of the homes lining the street.  After a conversation with some of my neighbors, I learned that all of the houses are still dry.  They are just hoping that the water level doesn't rise, as is the case with the Cumberland River that has engulfed downtown Clarksville.  Surreal is the only word that I can think of to describe this devastation.  Please help me pray for all of the middle Tennesseans suffering right now...

Here are some pictures that I took on my walk around the block...