Monday, May 03, 2010

When Bull Mountain Broke Loose

I will never forget the time that I took my mom to visit the land that had been the childhood home of her grandmother along the banks of Bull Mountain Creek in Itawamba County, Mississippi. Mom's grandmother had lived with her family when Mom was growing up in neighboring Monroe County. She'd heard her grandmother telling stories of the flooding "when Bull Mountain broke loose." When Mom saw the property and the creek, which was muddy and a little choppy and high on the day we visited, she was able to visualize those stories that her grandmother had told her when she was growing up.

As I watch the devastation in the Western and Middle parts of my state and listen to my friends telling their stories of cars submerged and floating in the raging waters of the Cumberland and Harpeth Rivers and all the many creeks and tributaries, I wonder how many of the descendants of the persons who survived this spring's devastating floods will hear stories of "when the Harpeth broke loose" or "when the Cumberland broke loose." The images I've seen on my television and computer screen are devastating. I've seen areas that I used to frequent when I lived in the Nashville area under water. My prayers go out to the people in the flooded areas of Tennessee and Kentucky.

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