How would you react if you came back home and everything you cherished had been destroyed by flood water?

I’d be devastated at first but eventually I’d remind myself that those things I lost were simply objects that can be replaced over time. The most important thing to me is my fiancé and my family. As long as they were all ok, I’d have hope.

This happened to me on a much smaller scale. My home was flooded, but only the basement.
I lost my car, washer/dryer, and an old fridge. The mud was horrendous. I cried the whole time I was trying to clean the mud out, which took days and days. Of course, it was a freak thing, I was not in a flood zone so my insurance didn’t cover anything. My niece lives in Nashville and got a little water damage, nothing like the others though, and feels very fortunate.

My immediate reaction would probably be to cry (I cry whenever I’m stressed out or upset). Then I’d pull myself together and, while being upset, I would start cleaning up the mess and rebuilding. I would probably be hurt about some of the things lost that couldn’t be replaced (like baby pictures), but I would be grateful for what I have and that my family is safe.

The look on some of these peoples facing was of total shock. one man was sitting on his front porch and just shaking his head. he was looking at all his personal property stacked in his front yard. inside his house, the wallboard had all been ripped out and wood support beams were exposed. his house had a water line that ended at the very top of his roof. his house had been completely submerged under water.

We have had many incidents of looting. many people have been arrested. two men had stolen peoples appliances and were arrested, at a junk yard, attempting to sell them for money. looting, in my state, is a felony and they will serve one to three years in prison. looting is a serious crime against people, in their time of sorrow. i have no sympathy for looters.

understood..i would react the same way when i was desvatated by divorce three years ago after many, many, years of marriage..hitch up the old britches, dust them off, and keep on going!

Have worked a lot of floods over the years as an insurance adjuster, certainly have seen their pain. Like every tradegy in life, you adjust..and keep going! All you can do!

This happened in our area in 2006. An inch of rain an hour for seven hours straight. I made it into my office, but I had to drive by all kinds of flooding. The look on peoples faces was just heart wrenching. My brother had three and a half feet of water in his house. I went over to help and I can’t remember how many trips we made carrying stuff out. The worst was seeing my sister in law’s wedding album under three feet of water. We were lucky on one side with his house, the water came up from the ground, so we missed the mud. We managed to save most of the pictures by drying them asap, but they’re a little curled around the edges. It was a bitch to drive anywhere because roads were flooded, washed out or the hillsides washed down on to them. I finally got home that night, sat on the floor and cried like a baby.

I think that good people try to imagine themselves in a situation like this so as to truly feel for the tragedy. We all do it. But, try as we might to place ourselves in the other guys’ shoes, I don’t think we can unless it happens to us.

@john65pennington I can’t even imagine your wonderful Nashville in such a tragic situation…the lives…the homes…the national treasures. It must have been terrible for you and your wife to see. My heart is with you as the cleanup and rebuilding process begins.

I would be sorrowful, then I would be determined to get my home and my life back together.

I’m one of those people who have very little attachment to things. When things get ruined or broke, I love getting new stuff. I hate looking at the same stuff year after year. I’m not saying I wouldn’t be in shock or upset at the upheaval in my life, but I would never be worrying about my sofa or my favorite shoes.

I think you have to experience this to really understand how bad it is. It’s not about things. It disrupts your entire life and destroys your sense of security and any thoughts you had that you might be a little invincible and can handle anything life throws at you. I had a pretty good sense of security, but flooding on a large scale is this unstoppable force that rolls thru everything. You can’t do a damned thing to stop it, you just wait for it to recede and than start picking up the pieces. Thats the mark it leaves on you, at least for me.

I am not strongly attached to things. I would be upset at the cost, but aside from that I would move on and start again.

In 1997 when I was in Winnipeg there were gigantic floods all over Manitoba, and many places were ruined and devastated. With our school we often went out on ’‘field trips’’ to remote areas to pile up sandbags and shit to try and protect houses, and I kept thinking how freaky it would be if this happened to me. (Most especially since I lived in a neighbourhood that stood in between the two rivers which were acting up.)

I figure that indeed, it would suck, but apparently floods from rivers or lakes or sewer backups are very quick to happen, and everyone back then was just happy to have come out of it safe and sound. Maybe they had some badass insurance or something haha.

So I denno. I think it would suck to loose all my movies and video games, but I might feel differently if it actually happened.

If I came back home and everything I cherished had been destroyed by flood water or any natural disaster my immediate reaction would be cry a few tears at the loss. But then I would snap to the realization that material possessions are just that—material.

I would be devastated and go into a deep, long lasting depression. I have 2 huge hatboxes full of old photos Plus many photo albums!
Those can’t be replaced. Oh, it’s too awful to imagine.