About seven weeks ago (May 2), Nashville was hit with historic flooding as the banks of the Cumberland River overflowed after the area was hit with extremely heavy rains. According to the New York Times, the flooding killed about two dozen and did an enormous amount of damage in Nashville: about $1.5 billion worth. Interestingly, the Cumberland apparently overflowed partly because water had to be released into it to relieve pressure on a dam, so there was a man-made aspect to this disaster. Anyway, this is “old” news; as far as many people are concerned, Nashville has fully recovered and everything is back to normal. As somebody who’s been impacted by a historic flooding disaster in the past, I know this isn’t the case. It will be a long time before Nashville is “back to normal,” at least in a physical sense. Flood damage is nasty and surprisingly pervasive. Even after the water is long gone, a lot of buildings still have to be gutted, simply because the water hung around long enough to start the mold growing.

    Now, given my previous experience with life-altering flooding, you would think that I’d have written about this a while back. Unfortunately, the Gulf Coast has it’s own currently unfolding disaster to deal with and that’s kind of kept my attention lately. I haven’t written about that either, but I’ll be talking about it soon. Especially since, if you’d asked me a few months ago, I’d have had no trouble naming BP as my favorite oil company. But more on that later...

    Okay, so once I looked around and was reminded that bad things happen in other parts of the country too, I called the only ice sculptor that I know in the Nashville area, Matt Simonds. He told me that he and his family were fine; they were plenty high up and the flooding never touched them. Matt’s business did take a hit, as a lot of ice sculptures were cancelled. I would imagine that his business will be down a bit for a while, as some of his clients are likely closed or offering limited services while they rebuild. However, some of this lost business should be recouped over time as some of these clients celebrate grand re-openings with high-profile events. The same thing happened with Katrina, and is actually still happening, although to a lesser degree.

    Now, from the picture at the top of this entry, you might have guessed that the flooding may have another effect on the world of ice sculpting: the ICE! event at the Gaylord Opryland. ICE! is an elaborate indoor ice sculpture display created by sculptors from Harbin, China that the four large Gaylord properties feature during the holidays. The Gaylord Opryland took a major hit from the flooding with current guesstimates at $169-$225 million dollars, depending on how you do the math. The hotel is scheduled to reopen on November 15, which is right around when the ICE! event usually opens each year. I would speculate that the Opryland might decide not to do the ICE! exhibit this year, especially since they will be opening the repaired hotel with a lot of new employees. On the other hand ICE! might be part of the splash that they try to make with the newly updated property; we’ll have to see.

    Gaylord has been actively expanding, recently adding a new property in Baltimore (Gaylord National) and the ICE! event has been held there as well. There were plans for another Gaylord property in Mesa, Arizona, but these plans have apparently been put on hold due to the recent state of the economy. The Nashville property flooding may further delay this project as it ties up company cash and other resources during the rebuild. Presumably, Gaylord would hold the ICE! event at the Mesa property as well, but it looks like it may be a while before that happens.

    Matt was kind enough to send along some photos of the flooding around the Gaylord Opryland, and it’s impressive indeed. I’ve included a few below; there was a LOT of water.

   

(By the way, I don’t have proper sourcing info for these photos, so if I’m using them without permission, let me know and I will remove or credit them. Thanks!)

    Major disasters like this flood have surprisingly wide-ranging effects. In this case, flooding in Nashville will likely hurt ice sculptors in Harbin, China and the economy of Mesa, Arizona, as well as many other people and places that I can scarcely imagine. So it’s not just Nashville’s problem, just like hurricanes and oil spills aren’t just a coastal problem. But I can also say that those affected by disasters like this are grateful for the help and support they get from those outside the area! And when it’s their turn to help somebody else, they usually will do everything they can, because they know what it’s like to be in a tough situation.