Telethon

The telethon is hosted by Vince Gill and streamed live on wsmv.com. They might run it again. Many Nashville stars are performing and answering phones, including Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, Naomi Judd, Amy Grant, Lorrie Morgan, Darius Rucker, Phil Vassar, Troy Gentry of Montgomery Gentry, Steve Wariner, Buddy Jewell, Lonestar, Bo Bice, Lee Roy Parnell, Bryan White, Julie Roberts, Chuck Wicks, Jimmy Olander, Steven Curtis Chapman, Brandon Heath, K'eb Mo, Billy Dean, and Dan Tyminski (sang "Man of Constant Sorrow" from O Brother - I love that song).

What's so bad is that many people didn't have and couldn't get flood insurance because they weren't in a flood plain. Others had flood insurance that said in the "fine print" that it didn't cover damage from water that came from outside the house. And some cover the structure only but none of the contents. Many people have applied for FEMA money, but it is restricted to homes within a certain distance from rivers. Cars were towed that people had to pay to get back and increases every day. Mortgage companies are not going to give anyone a break on paying for homes that no longer exist. I wouldn't be able to pay rent if I were making mortgage payments, too.

There are people who have lost everything. Worse than that are the 20 deaths. Pets and farm animals died and are missing. This is just so strange. We keep saying we've never seen anything like this here before. We are used to rain. We get a lot of it - heavy showers and rain that has lasted for over a month, but this is unbelievable. 25% of the rain we usually get in a year happened in 48 hours. This is from rain - RAIN! There was a stationary front with heavy rain that wouldn't move on the way it usually does, so it just sat there drenching everything in a torrential downpour.

Brad Paisley said that much of the staging and props for his coming concerts — called the H2O tour — were underwater during the floods, and that most of his guitars, amps and equipment had been destroyed. Ben Jumper, the owner of a storage plant called Soundcheck Nashville, where Paisley, Vince Gill, Keith Urban, and other musicians kept their gear, said he expected his losses from the flood would amount to tens of millions of dollars. Keith Urban said he had to borrow a guitar to appear on the telethon and that all his musical instruments and equipment is stored in Soundcheck. Lorrie Morgan said all of hers and her wardrobe is there, too. A publicist for Kenny Chesney told The A.P. that the musician’s home would probably be condemned after water rose above its first floor.

The music performers are donating their time and money to help out. Taylor Swift donated $500,000. Vince Gill said he could eat for a month on that. So far they have over a million dollars which won't go that far during all this.