Holy cow, now this is serious!
This is the inside of the performance hall of the Grand Ole Opry, located in Gaylord Opryland (Gaylord being the parent company). The entire property adjoins the banks of Cumberland River. Opryland consists of the Opry House, a very large shopping mall called Opry Mills and the Gaylord Opryland Resort. All three facilities were inundated over the weekend when the Cumberland far overflowed its banks. Guest at the hotel were evacuated Saturday night and parts of the hotel were under more than 20 feet of water. (The hotel is enormous, offering 600,000 square feet of meeting space alone, plus more than 3,000 rooms.)
The Grand Ole Opry was located until 1974 in Nashville's downtown Ryman Auditorium, which the Opry finally outgrew. The Opry will go on this weekend back at the Ryman, which was not flooded, and probably be a gypsy show for a few months until the Opry House can be returned to service. An outside view of the flooded Opry House is here. An aerial view of the whole property appeared on The Tennessean's web site:
At top is the hotel, at bottom the mall. Between, on the right, is the Opry House with the flat white roof and the two dark, triangle-looking roofs falling away. The vessel at left, on the river, is Gaylord's General Jackson stern wheeler. Media quoted the hotel's general manager as saying he hoped to reopen the hotel in time for ... Christmas.
Michael Silence cites a post by a Nashville native.
I'll be honest - I was born here, and I've never been to an Opry performance. Yet, sometimes when I travel and I'm missing home on weekends, I tune into WSM and listen. It is at these times I realize how much I love the city of my birth. Hearing that the Opry House was flooded affected me in ways I cannot explain.I was born in and grew up in Nashville, but I never went to the Opry until I was 45. Frankly, it was sort of a "been there, done that" experience for me that I feel no compulsion to repeat, but as this writer explains, the Opry in many ways is part of definitional Nashville. The flooding of the Opry House is an emotional blow to people who understand themselves to be rooted in the city and by the city.
The occasion of my attendance was that my wife and I were celebrating our 25th anniversary. We booked a one-night package at the hotel and bought Opry tickets at the front desk. The hotel bill was $340 and worth every penny. I've traveled over a great deal of the world but there is no hotel like the Opryland Resort. It has acres of open space under glass in the Cascades section and an enormous Delta section, also under glass, where you can take a very nice boat ride. The cuisine is magnificent (though pricey) and the service is outstanding.
But this was the Cascades section at week's open:
Just devastating, though my donations will be devoted to people who lost their homes and Gaylord will have to fend for itself. But I do hope the hotel will reopen in time for Christmas because it's Christmas decorations alone are worth the trip.
In related news, Gov. Bredesen on Monday declared 54 counties disaster areas. As of now, President Obama has declared six counties as federal disaster areas.
President Barack Obama issued another major disaster declaration for two additional Tennessee counties in the wake of devastating floods. Today’s action makes federal funding available to individuals in Montgomery and Dyer Counties. Four counties – Cheatham, Davidson, Hickman and Williamson – were authorized yesterday. Declarations for additional counties requested by the Governor are expected in coming days.
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